One Buttercream to Rule Them All / May 23, 2016 by Molly Brodak

It tastes like ice cream because it is ice cream, essentially. Custard to be exact. Just, not frozen.

This recipe is years in the making. I have tried every buttercream in every variation under the sun, searching for one that would be creamy, smooth, not too sweet, and yet sturdy enough to hold up under stacked cakes. Generally I give up on all the frostings and just make ganache.

Let's get to the heart of things. Bear with me--we need talk for a minute about the components of frosting--the very concept of frosting--in order to get at what we even want it to do. Along the way we'll run through the popular buttercreams and their issues.

We ask so much of frosting. Sealing in the cake's freshness and looking perfectly beautiful, It's supposed to be sweeter than the cake it frosts, but not sickly sweet. It's supposed to be both smooth and creamy yet fluffy. It's supposed to hold up under heavy stacked cakes, hold up in hot weather, hold up with all the dyes and flavors we add to it, hold up under heavy fondant and ganache, hold up to piping, freezing, defrosting, re-whipping, etc. etc. AND it has to be DELICIOUS. No wonder there are a million variations on a million recipes for the stuff--to accomplish all of these demands is no simple task for what is essentially a mere embellishment on a cake.

And so what is the theory, if you will, of its composition? We've got sugar for sure--either melted granulated sugar in a syrup, or powdered sugar (or both). The real debate, as you can see played out in the following paragraphs, is what body is best to transport this sugar to your palate. It's got to have a pleasingly fatty mouthfeel, a smooth and substantial texture, but not too heavy.

The first candidate is butter, obviously, hence the simple beauty of American buttercream. Whipped butter can for sure be fantastically fluffy, and the fattiness is perfect. But American buttercream is too sweet, and if you try to make it less sweet by leaving out some powdered sugar, it just tastes like solid butter. It's fine in a pinch, but not transcendent. Can be delicious if you add as much unsweetened chocolate to it as possible.

I'm not even going to mention the shortening version of American "butter"cream. Because, gross. The war is over my love, put the Crisco down.

How about something lighter, a little meringue? Swiss meringue buttercream (SMBC), the second most popular frosting, always bugged the everloving crap out of me. First of all, it's nonsensical to make a meringue and then completely deflate it by cramming a brick of butter into it. At least one person has realized that the entire meringue step is completely unnecessary. Nailing the emulsion between butter and sweetened egg whites is tricky because of the temperature difference--which is why there is almost always some form of encouragement in any SMBC recipe along the lines "when it turns to soup, don't worry, just keep whipping and it will come together!" If you haven't figured it out already, that "soup" is the remnant of the meringue you just spent all that time whipping up, which has now had 99% of its tiny bubbles popped. By hunks of butter. You might as well just pour sweetened egg whites into your butter from the get-go. Beyond that weirdness, it's delicate, prone to weeping, and has a creepy texture. Yes, creepy. It's too slick.

Italian meringue buttercream is somewhat better, since the egg whites are not cooked, cooled, then whipped up, but whipped first then stabilized with hot sugar. Still, it's a tricky meringue to perfect because of how you have to, you know, pour hot sugar into meringue and somehow not murder it. Also the subtle shine of this frosting puts me off, as if it contains gelatin.

The other half of eggs? French buttercream, with an egg yolk foam instead of an egg white meringue...well...nobody makes that one. It's good though, just very soft and yolky.

Pudding? German buttercream and cooked (flour) frostings...now we are getting somewhere. I've been fixated on these in the past six months, feeling like there is something perfect here if I can just get the ratios right. I love the full body of cooked flour (or seven-minute, or ermine, (such a great name!)) frosting, but the texture wasn't fluffy enough for me--it came out a little on the pasty side, and dull in flavor as glue unless a ton of sugar is added. It was the flour.

So, scratch the flour. That means there is one champion left on our list, the one who ultimately took the prize in every possible way: custard. About 40% custard to 60% whipped butter makes the perfect body for the perfect frosting.

We circle back to German buttercream. It's not a popular one because it's considered too soft to hold up to piping, and can have a yellowish tinge.

Well. I am here to say I have solved all of these problems. I have solved buttercream, period, haha!

For now.

First off all, I saw several problems with the custard recipes in German buttercream. They were all made with yolks only and milk as the custard base. Obviously adding a whole egg or two is going to give us more lightness to balance out the heavy body and flavor of yolks. Swap some milk for heavy cream to add non-egg density and a lighter color. Thirdly, we are going to need two sugars here--granulated (for the custard) and powdered (to add to the butter). A balance of both means the perfect amount of sweetness/stability to the custard base and firmness for piping. And lastly--that utterly foolish last step in all recipes of adding small amounts of soft butter to the custard as you whip it--reverse that! Whip up your butter first to ultimate fluffiness, then add small amounts of custard. Duh. Now we have a frosting that is ridiculously perfect--light, fluffy, yet firm enough to pipe beautifully, not too sweet, perfectly rich (and because of the extra fat from the yolks and cream) carries flavors potently!

This is somewhat embarrassing to admit but I teared up a little the first time I tasted this recipe. You don't understand how long I have been dreaming of this frosting.

It doesn't break, it doesn't weep, it can easily be adjusted to your sweetness preference. Does it crust? No. But it's firm enough to cover with fondant anyway if you use the barrel wrap technique, which is what I almost always use (post on this soon!).

Making the custard for this recipe will remind you of making pastry cream, except with cornstarch only and without the butter stirred in at the end. It will cool very firm, like unpleasant jiggly concrete, but that's ok, you don't want a lot of moisture in your buttercream or it will be too soft.

This frosting has an uncannily light texture while tasting rich and substantial. The flavor of fresh cream really shines here, which is why it reminds me so much of ice cream. And because you are heating the custard, it's a great application for flavor infusions, such as a split vanilla bean pod--or, where you can add your chocolate if making a chocolate version for seamless incorporation.

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Onto it then. Yes it takes a bit of prep since you need your custard to cool completely before you can make your frosting, but I highly recommend doubling the custard part and keeping it on hand anytime you need to whip up some frosting--and, I don't really see a problem with having extra pastry cream on hand. It will last about three weeks in the fridge tightly sealed, and can be frozen for six months.

Now, about that cake...this cake is ALSO something years in the making. A velvety, dense-crumbed, moist chocolate cake that is not even remotely heavy or dry, yet can be carved and stacked? Yes'm. But that recipe is for another post.

The fondant leaves and slim gold feathers I used to adorn this cake come from molds I sell on my Etsy shop from vintage pieces I have fiendishly collected over the years, if you wanted to know.

Custard Buttercream

aka the world's best buttercream

This recipe makes A LOT of buttercream--about 7 cups (enough to fill and frost two 8" cakes and then some). If you don't need that much right now, I recommend making the full custard amount, then freezing half of it for later use. Whip up your half-sized custard portion with half of the amount of butter and powdered sugar here.

8 oz. granulated sugar

1.5 oz. corn starch

1 egg

2 yolks

1 c. whole milk

1 c. heavy cream

2 Tbsp vanilla extract

1 c. (two sticks) of salted butter

3 c. (six sticks) of unsalted butter

2 1/2 c. powdered sugar, or to taste

Whisk granulated sugar and cornstarch in a heat-proof bowl until well combined, then add egg and yolks and beat for 1 minute. Heat milk and cream on the stovetop until mixture starts to steam but not boil. Temper the egg mixture by mixing in a small amount of hot milk to eggs, gradually adding more until mixture is smooth, then pour contents back into the saucepan and cook for another minute, until the custard thickens and bubbles swampily. Remove from heat and strain custard through a fine sieve to catch any cooked egg bits. Mix in vanilla, press plastic wrap over the surface, and allow to cool in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

If the custard was cooled overnight or for longer than 3 hours, remove from fridge and allow to come to room temperature before using. Custard should be cool room temperature--not cold.

Whip butter until pale and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes. Add powdered sugar and whip for at least 1 more minute. Add spoonfuls of cooled custard to the butter and whip until completely combined.

White Chocolate Fondant Recipe / April 18, 2016 by Molly Brodak

I know, I know, fondant is gross. I get that. But I can never understand bakers who stick to a strict no-fondant rule when it comes to cake decorating. Fondant has its place and, really, if you make it yourself, doesn't have to taste so awful.

There are a million recipes on the internet for homemade fondant, and most consist of primarily melted marshmallows and powdered sugar. This one is no different, making it yet another recipe for "MMF" as bakers call it, marshmallow fondant. But the addition of a specific type of white chocolate and just a touch of butter makes this one, I think, the best MMF out there.

First off, let's talk about white chocolate.

White chocolate is not really chocolate because it doesn't have any...well...chocolate in it. But it does have cocoa butter, so at least there's something in there from the cacao pod.

To truly be considered white chocolate, it must contain this cocoa butter, along with a certain proportion of milk solids, milk fat, and sugar. Which is why most things considered white chocolate are not white chocolate at all. Notice the language on the packaging:

Mmmm, "white morsels."

On the other side of things, you can get some really great authentic white chocolate from Callebaut and small-batch chocolatiers, but those I would save for, you know, just eating.

My favorite white chocolate to work with in recipes is the Guittard Choc-au-Lait chips. They are the best tasting chips at their price point and they work as well in recipes as idiot-proof candy melts. Unlike other "white chocolates" at this price, Choc-au-Lait chips contain cocoa butter and are less sweet. I buy them in bulk.

I recently made a square cake with this fondant and it performed beautifully--no tearing at the corners, no sagging, no cracking. I kept the cake simple as a plain background for the pale pink gumpaste peony I spent days working on.

I have always been of the opinion that peonies look best in profile. Maybe because this shows off the cup-like petals better, for a more feathery, ruffled look. So I built up just one side of the flower and left the "back" somewhat flat so it would fit nicely against the side of this cake.

The fondant this recipe makes is stiffer than regular MMF, and you'll find that once it is set up you will need to warm it in your hands by kneading it, or even zap it in the microwave to get it more pliable. But I love the texture of this fondant--it has body and weight, yet can be rolled very thin without tearing or bubbling because of its durability. It also tastes much better than most fondant I've tried, with the white chocolate flavor to balance out the sweetness of MMF.

White Chocolate Fondant

Makes about 2 pounds

1 16 oz. bag of marshmallows (I have found that it doesn't matter what size marshmallows they are)

1 TBSP. salted butter

1 TBSP. water

1 c. (175 g) Guittard Choc-au-Lait chips (other brands can be substituted in a pinch)

4 c. (455 g) powdered sugar, plus more as needed

shortening as needed

In a large bowl, melt the marshmallows in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring between bursts until completely smooth. Be careful not to overheat. Add butter, chips, then drizzle the water around the perimeter of the marshmallows to help loosen them from the sides of the bowl, stir with a spatula until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time, using your well-greased hands to knead in the final two cups. Feel free to add a little more powdered sugar or shortening if mixture is too sticky. Knead until fondant forms a smooth ball, then coat with shortening and wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store in an air-tight container or zip-top storage bag. Because the white chocolate retains heat, the fondant needs to cool for at least three hours before using; overnight is best. It will stiffen as it cools.

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake / April 5, 2016 by Molly Brodak

Imagine cheesecake made into some kind of tender, otherworldly cotton candy and you might be close to imagining the game-changing texture of this cheesecake. It's a souffle cake for sure, with plenty of eggs and just a little flour--but its also something else, something unique.

I was never a big fan of cheesecake, because texture-wise they come off as either solid hunks of sugary cream cheese (the unbaked type) or dry sponges (the baked variety). In fact I clearly remember a few years ago deciding that I would never eat cheesecake again--saying it aloud even, "I will never eat cheesecake again," simply because it was never worth the calories.

But then, this happened.

I found some recipes for a Japanese style cheesecake on various Asian food bloggers' sites which promised to be light and moist. Several failures and several adjustments later, my special little recipe for a world-ending cheesecake came into being.

And like all special desserts, this one requires a bit of prep. You have to make some caster sugar (no substitute--and buying it is financially reckless imho) and prepare a cheesecake pan for the water bath by wrapping it numerous times in heavy-duty foil like a maniac. But it is important. If any trace of water touches your lovely cheesecake you'll end up with a gross-ass waxy layer on the bottom. So wrap the foil very carefully to avoid tears--and use three layers.

You're also definitely going to need cake flour for this recipe and some fresh lemons. Oh, and it's important to use salted butter here because it will provide the only salt for the recipe--adding granules of salt would interfere with the airy texture of the cake.

Another tip: I always wipe the metal or glass bowl and the beaters I'll be whipping egg whites in with a little white vinegar. It eliminates invisible grease/fat that can prevent your whites from whipping up properly.

While the icing is completely optional, I include a recipe for my lemon icing because I want to tell you the secret to lemon icing: citric acid.

If you like tangy lemony things, you need this little jar in your life. No matter how much lemon juice or lemon extract you add to any icing or cake, you will never get the fresh, zippy tang you are looking for without citric acid. Only a pinch is necessary, so I imagine the jar will last you the rest of your life. You can also use citric acid in canning, pickling, and preserving, if you are into those kinds of things.

So the flavor on this cheesecake is super lemony, and the texture is incredibly light, fluffy, moist, and melt-in-your-mouth. There's no better word for it than otherworldly.

I cannot imagine a better desert to serve at the end of a rich or spicy meal. I can see it now--guests lifted off to heaven on clouds of lemony dreams...

Buy the recipe here, and let me know how it turns out!

ascending to heaven just looking at this

Bird Day Cake + Vanilla Malt Syrup Recipe / March 29, 2016 by Molly Brodak

On the top of the list of the things I cannot handle right now is my birthday cake today. Happy birthday to me! Who hasn't wished for a couple of magic chickadees to help with one's cake decorating?

The little chickadees are hand painted gumpaste and suspended with a hidden wire behind the dual tone gumpaste ribbons they hold.

Under the dusty blue fondant is insanely good vanilla malt cake and a fudgy chocolate buttercream, my favorite combination.

I've been working on a good vanilla malt cake for a while and I've finally perfected my recipe with this cake. Simply adding malt powder to the mix didn't work--not only did the malt powder tend to clump up, but the malt made the cake drier with a darker crust (as malt encourages browning). So if you can't bake it in the cake, there's only one other logical choice--a soak!

I don't always soak my cakes in syrup because I really love my basic cake recipe and I usually don't think it needs to be any sweeter or moister. But this soak is so, so worth it.

Below is the recipe for the vanilla malt syrup I used to soak this cake, which made enough for both the 6" and the 8" layer. If you've never used a syrup soak on your cakes, don't be shy with this stuff. It might look at first like the cake layer is just getting soggy but it give it a few minutes and the cake will absorb all the syrup and become fantastically moist and delicious. I dab it on with a silicone brush, but another good way to apply it is with a squeeze bottle.

So this is another good use for the dark malt powder I'm sure you bought to make the Salty Malty cookies--the recipe for which, by the way, is going away soon, so be sure to purchase it before the next Recipe of the Month comes along (and I hear it's going to be a recipe for the cheesecake to end all cheesecakes...) This syrup is exactly what you need to make malted milkshakes, so it's great to have on hand.

Vanilla Malt Syrup

1 c. water

1 c. sugar

1/4 c. dark malt extract powder

1 tsp. vanilla extract or 1/2 vanilla bean pod

pinch salt

Heat water and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat or in the microwave until the sugar is dissolved. If using, add 1/2 vanilla bean pod and allow to simmer for a few minutes. Add the malt powder and stir until it is completely dissolved. Cool, and add vanilla extract. Store in the refrigerator once cooled.

Vegan Agar Gems / March 26, 2016 by Molly Brodak

The recipe for agar gems is so simple that it really doesn't need a lot of explanation--which means this post is going to be full of just tons of eye candy instead.

Agar jellies have a less chewy consistency than gelatin desserts. Instead of being wiggly and gummy like gelatin treats, their texture is almost crisp in a way, incredibly delicate and quick to melt in one's mouth. It is the perfect treat on a hot summer day or as a refreshing dessert that doesn't require firing up the oven. The recipe I have here is just a slight adjustment to the instructions on the box: I have made these slightly more firm, and you can make your gems more or less firm by simply adjusting the amount of liquid you add.

Making these gems is also super fun. Agar sets up much faster than gelatin dessert, so it is easy to layer colors and make interesting shapes while keeping the mixture warm on the stove. I ladled out small portions of the mixture into bowls and mixed in food coloring, or added a teaspoon of coconut milk to make the mixture opaque.

I was using flexible candy molds and flexible bakeware to make the agar dessert in since popping out the completed shapes was much easier with a flexible mold. If you don't have any flexible silicone bakeware to use, just be sure to line any cake pan or container you are pouring your agar mixture into with parchment. Then when you are ready, run a knife along the sides, turn agar out, and cut into desired shapes (the parchment is important because agar dessert will break apart easily).

You can also make agar spheres by dropping the mixture slowly out of a squirt bottle into a glass of cold vegetable oil (strain the agar beads out with a wire strainer and rinse briefly in cold water.

Below you can see how to make clouds on a celery green sea: just gently drop some opaque coconut-milk-agar mix into a clear portion of agar mixture that has been setting up for about 5-7 minutes (if you drop it in too early, it will all mix together). Once that layer is set, add another layer (the "sea" layer) and then when you cut this piece up, flip upside down.

The agar has basically no flavor except for a very light herbal taste. You can add any flavorings you like to the mixture, but clear extracts are best to keep the colors bright. I recommend lemon or coconut.

I used Swallow Globe brand agar-agar powder, which I picked up at my local Asian food grocery but you can purchase this online, too. I found it was not as crystal clear as I would have liked, so if anyone has any recommendations for an agar-agar that sets crystal clear, let me know!

Vegan Agar Gems

1 oz packet agar-agar powder (7 g)

120 g (4.25 oz) sugar

750 ml (25.3 fl. oz) filtered water

2 tsp lemon extract

Coconut milk and gel food coloring

Bring water to a gentle boil in a small saucepan and add the sugar, stir until dissolved. Turn the heat down to barely simmering and add agar-agar powder, stir until dissolved. Add extract. Keep mixture warm while ladling out small portions to color. Allow layers of mixture to set for at least 8 minutes before adding another layer. Cool completely, turn out, and cut into desired shapes.

Early Spring Wagashi / March 4, 2016 by Molly Brodak

I have been working on these delightful treats for a long time now and I'm really excited about these forthcoming posts. I will post about each recipe separately so the series will have three parts--what follows is a general overview, and I'll be sure to keep this page updated with links as they appear.

Wagashi is a term for a wide range of Japanese sweets. If you were going to be served wagashi at tea, you would expect a variety of tiny desserts, artfully arranged, and evocative of the current or upcoming season. Summer wagashi might be colorful and refreshing, autumn wagashi might be more subdued and warm. You get the idea.

I have been poring over websites and cookbooks and magazines for the last few months to study these treats and I wanted to stay true to the seasonal themes, but replace many of the traditional Japanese ingredients such as sweetened bean paste and chewy glutinous rice for more familiar dessert flavors and textures for American tasters.

These adorable baubles are modeled on temari balls, decorative objects made by wrapping silk thread in various patterns around a ball. The wagashi version is made with mochi and red bean paste, but I made these with easy homemade marzipan. They are super simple but very fun and would be a great project for kids or on hot days when you don't feel like firing up the oven.

Next come the jellies. These are vegan, too, made with agar and the occasional splash of coconut milk for opacity. These are my version of yokan, which are jellies traditionally made with red bean paste and served chilled in summer, sometimes with an assortment of fruit. I made them with lemon and rosewater to keep the fresh spring feeling going. Agar sets up much faster than gelatin and doesn't need to be chilled, so layering colors and textures in this process is way more satisfying and and easy. Spheres of agar can be made by dropping it from a squirt bottle into a glass of chilled oil, just like those molecular gastronomy goobers do with their nerd-food concoctions (I am not knocking those goobers, I love them, please serve me all the nerd-food spheres you've got).

And lastly we come to the rakugan springerle. Rakugan are little cakes of dried sugar and rice flour that have been pressed into molds and imprinted with designs. They aren't delicious really, they have the chalky texture of Smarties, but are meant to serve as a counterpoint to the astringency of matcha. I started collecting old kashigata (the wooden molds made for these sweets) on ebay and they reminded me so much of german springerle molds, the connection seemed obvious. So I made traditional springerle in the Japanese molds and dusted the resulting cookies with matcha powder for flavor and beautiful light green color. I used edible petal dusts for the other colors. I also used some of my fondant/gumpaste molds to supplement the kashigata designs. The anise seeds that normally stud the bottom of these cookies were swapped out for sesame seeds, which toasted lightly in the oven and added to the subtle lemon and green tea flavors.

Stay tuned for these posts! Recipes and tutorials for all of the above will be coming out throughout March!

Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies / February 22, 2016 by Molly Brodak

In late February, summer could not feel farther away. One requires summer's official flavor at times like these: strawberry. The subdued pink tone of these cookies belie a truly intense and completely natural strawberry flavor. Soft and tender with the slight crunch of strawberry seeds, these cookies also retain their shape when baked which makes them pretty much the holy grail of roll out cookies.

The magic ingredient here is freeze-dried strawberry powder, which can be purchased or made, and of course making it is cheaper. I found the best deal to be a few bags of these sliced freeze-dried strawberries at my corner CVS, although any brand will work.

I made these cookies not overly sweet because I knew I'd be icing them with royal icing, although they are lovely without icing for those who prefer a dreamy, soft cookie that won't break your sweet tooth.

Just whizz the freeze-dried strawberries up in your food processor to a fine powder (I use this fantastic Kitchen Aid mini grinder that I also grind spices in or make caster sugar with). Because they are so tender, these would make great candidates for sandwich cookies...with dark chocolate ganache?! YES go and do this.

I hate making two different weights of royal icing (border and flood) so I just make a medium weight and somehow manage to carry on

Many good roll out cookie recipes call for a smidge of cream cheese to keep them tender but I really wanted them to taste like cream cheese, so I kept adding more and more cream cheese until they were perfectly balanced. There is no softer, creamier roll out cookie on the planet.

Side note: someone recently asked me why the salt in all of my cookie and cake recipes is always added to the butter/fat instead of being added to the flour mixture as is routine. What happens to the salt when you whisk it together with the flour and leavener? It sorts itself out to the bottom of your bowl, where it stays. Salt is heavy. It is not a powder. Salt is a liquid. Always add salt to your liquids, not your drys. Now let us never speak of this issue again.

I love an excuse to get out my collection of silicone leaf and flower molds for a little extra easy beauty. Just a quick squish of some white fondant into the mold and then a bit of edible copper-colored powder mixed into a paint with a few drops of vodka and you are good to go. I've tried every kind of metallic powder under the sun and nothing compares to the stuff from Evil Cake Genius. It's pricey but it lasts for ever, and the effect is worth every penny.

That rounded rectangle shape was cut out with the lid of a Hershey's cocoa canister

These cookies will change your life. Well, maybe at least just get you through the winter.

Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies

8 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temperature

1/2 c. butter, softened to room temperature

3/4 c. (150 g.) sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 yolk, room temperature

1/3 c. freeze-dried strawberry powder (about 2 c. of sliced freeze-dried strawberries will grind down to about 1/3 c.)

1 tsp. vanilla

3 c. (375 g.) flour, plus more for rolling

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Whisk together the flour and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside. Cream the butter, sugar, cream cheese and salt in a stand mixer with paddle attachment or in a large bowl with your hand mixer. Be sure no lumps of cream cheese remain. Add the yolk and mix for another minute, then the strawberry powder and vanilla until incorporated. Add the flour mixture in two batches and mix until just barely incorporated. Remove dough ball from bowl and knead a few times in your hands to make sure the flour is fully incorporated. Divide into two balls. Roll out each ball onto a floured surface into a 1/4" rectangle that will fit your cookie sheets. Layer each dough sheet with plastic wrap and place on cookie sheet, then place cookie sheet into freezer. Use a sheet of wax paper between sheets to prevent them from sticking together.

Chill for at least an hour, but can be left in the freezer for up to 3 months in sheets. When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 365 degrees F. Remove sheets from freezer, cut shapes directly from frozen dough sheets, and bake frozen shapes immediately on cold or room temperature cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. If shapes become soft as you work with them, be sure to refreeze before baking. Bake for 8-12 minutes. Cookies will not brown much due to the cream cheese, so just checking them by tapping their centers with your finger to make sure they are set up is the best way to test if they are done.

Allow to cool completely, then frost and gobble.

White Chocolate Chai Cake / February 7, 2016 by Molly Brodak

There you are, wanting cake immediately, but knowing your damn butter is definitely not soft enough. You just aren't clever enough to have prepared a day in advance for this specific craving to hit, and now you are standing in the kitchen wondering if you can just microwave that butter a bit to soften it (nope) or cram a few sticks in the pockets of your sweatpants for a while (oh I do this all the time). Stop doing this. There is another way.

I'm a huge fan of Shirley Corriher's "melted sugar" method of cake baking which turns the traditional creaming method on its head. I still make the occasional creamed-butter cake, like with my Super Buttermilk cake (coming soon), but this little-known method has become my standard. The cake it produces is exceptionally tender and moist with a very fine and even crumb. Like velvet.

Instead of relying on a fickle network of puffed air in your sugar-butter-egg emulsion plus an extra tenderizer like buttermilk, this method uses a touch more baking powder than average and one of my all-time favorite ingredients--whipped cream. The other significant difference here is using a mix of oil and butter and a dense simple syrup added to the fats. Hence, you don't need to wait for your butter to soften.

Recently, while adding the water to the sugar for the simple syrup, I thought well this could be tasty instead of plain, this plain water I am adding here, and so the Chai Cake was born.

I absolutely love tea. I wanted to make sure the cake had the distinctive flavor of black tea unlike some chai cake recipes which are really just spice cakes. With a foundation of the milky flavor of the whipped cream and the extra-strong tea, this cake tastes exactly like chai.

I used The Republic of Tea's Republic Chai teabags for this, since their tea is both easy to find and high quality. Any brand of tea will work, but using a decent quality will ensure the tea flavor is rich and the spice blend is well designed.

delicious AND easy: the one and only white chocolate ganache

I iced the cake with a simple white chocolate ganache to keep the chai flavor in the forefront, although a basic vanilla buttercream would also be delicious.

I like to bake my cakes tall and small. Two 6" cake pans will give you a more moist cake than two 9" cake pans if you ask me. My favorite pans are Fat Daddio's in the 3" depth rather than the standard 2" so I can make more layers at once and save space in my oven. With the deeper pans, I've found that using a heating core/flower nail ensures the middle is never left undercooked. Here's my set up:

heating core, parchment round, 3" depth--just missing grease and flour

Did you see that killer cake stand in the top photo? I scour eBay for vintage cake stands/pedestals on a regular basis and although I knew I might not use such an intense cake stand very often, I had to have it. Slightly terrifying but mostly great. I thought a simple architectural fondant wrap would suit the overall snakeyness of the stand (which, I know, is really a pillar candle holder and not actually a cake stand at all).

fondant arcade with scalloped arches completely optional

And there's that whole matter of the edible wafer paper lotus I created for this cake. Gumpaste is my central medium for edible flowers, but I am branching off into wafer paper lately and will post about it soon. Because it curls so well on the edges, a flower with a deeply cupped petal like a lotus is the perfect match for wafer paper.

So between the flower and the ganache and the decoration and the cake itself, I would say this cake is an edible manifestation of one entire Sunday of my life. I'm not complaining. Baking is funny like that. It's very tiring in one way but also energizing and relaxing. Maybe it wouldn't be, though, if I didn't love it so much. And I don't know what I would do without music in the kitchen to keep me focused and happy. No matter what else I try, Inevitably I return to Chris's monthly mixes at Gorilla vs. Bear. They are free to download and, once mashed together, provide an epic non-stop playlist of interesting music without interruption. Thanks, Chris, for making these, they've become somewhat indispensable to my process.

I don't know why but Nov 14 is my favorite one

White Chocolate Chai Cake

1/2 c. (118 ml) heavy whipping cream

1 3/4 c. (201 g) cake flour (do not sub AP flour)

1 1/4 teaspoon (8 g) baking powder (aluminum-free is best)

1 tsp (2.5 g) cinnamon

1/2 tsp (1 g) cardamom

pinch of ground cloves

1 1/2 c. (298 g) sugar

1/3 c. (80 ml) strong brewed black chai tea

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1/3 c. + 2 Tablespoons (107 ml) canola oil

1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract

1/2 (3 g) teaspoon salt

3 large egg yolks, room temperature

2 large eggs, room temperature

For the ganache: 21 oz (600 g) of chopped white chocolate or good quality white chocolate chips and 6.75 fl oz (200 ml) heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove butter from fridge and cut into pieces, place eggs in bowl of warm water to bring to correct temperature if cold. Grease and flour cake pans, line bottom of pans with parchment paper. Whip the cream in a small bowl to stiff peaks, cover, and place in fridge.

To make the tea, steep 4 chai teabags in 1 cup of boiled water for five minutes. Do not over-steep or the tea will become bitter. Add sugar to a small saucepan and then add 1/3 c. of the strong tea. Heat sugar mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is mostly dissolved into a thick syrup. The sugar will not completely dissolve because the mixture is oversaturated. Scrape syrup out of saucepan into large bowl and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Add the butter, oil, vanilla and salt to the sugar syrup and beat until smooth. Sprinkle in 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix until just combined, then add the rest of the dry ingredients gradually until incorporated. With a whisk, mix in the yolks by hand, then the eggs. Careful to not over mix. Fold in whipped cream gently, then divide batter into prepared pans and drop pans a few times onto your counter to knock any large air bubbles up and out of the batter.

Bake for 18-25 minutes, depending on your pan size. Cakes are done when the center springs back when pressed. The cakes should just begin pulling away from the sides as you take them out of the oven.

To make the ganache, heat heavy cream in a saucepan or microwave until it bubbles around the edges. Pour over the chopped white chocolate and let rest for 1 minute. Mix until smooth. Allow to set up for at least 30 minutes before using. If it becomes too hard after resting, microwave briefly until soft enough to work with.

Cool, level and split cakes, then fill and frost with ganache.