Winter Skies, Kitchen Aglow

Last month I shared with you my enjoyment for baking, which is often curbed by not having softened butter at the exact moment I want to bake. Twice this month, I was smart enough to leave unsalted butter out on the kitchen island over night, preparing me for baking in the morning.

I'm not really a baker, though. Sure, I can knock out pastry shells in a breeze (mostly) and cakes are generally problem-free, but I lack finesse when it comes to decorating cakes or dealing with small baked goods. Most cakes I make are not frosted or decorated in any other way, and I have never really handled cookie dough - why go to so much trouble when they are so cheap to buy? I suppose with making them yourself, you can design your own cookies, for not every cookie is available at the supermarket or your local bakery. Also, one cannot have a true appreciation for such things without understanding the process.

Like most human beings, my angelheart Eric and I favour chocolate cookies. If all cookie manufacturers were to go out of business, the last cookie off the production line in the western world would probably be a variety of chocolate cookie. It must not come, therefore, as a surprise to anyone that my second ever attempt at making cookies (the first were vanilla shortbread made 4 or 5 years ago!) is a chocolate cookie, one that was presented by Martha Stewart in a recent publication of her peerless lifestyle magazine, Martha Stewart Living. The recipe was not especially highlighted, but it captured my attention because I could sense that behind its apparent simplicity was a depth of flavour.

Dark-Chocolate Cookies from Martha Stewart Living, July 2009. (Click on the link to take you to the recipe.)

I did not divert from the recipe, really, but as I am not a cookie maker, I had to improvise with utensils to stand in for cookie cutters (which would have made life easy because they are sharp and cut through dough without any issues), and I let the cookies cook 30 seconds longer than I should have - the nose knows, after all. I was impatient with the filling and whipped it for volume, but it still ran, as you can see in the photo above. All of this in mind, the only things I would think of doing next time around are:
1) Add a tablespoon of finely ground coffee or instant coffee granules to the dough;
2) Roll the dough out thicker (Martha did give instructions, but it is hard to work this out by sight); and
3) Add brandy to the filling.

Like cookie dough, I'm a bit stumped when it comes to icings and glazes for cake decorating. Try as I may to follow recipes, I never seem to be able to pull off a great icing. It could be to do with lack of aesthetic instinct when it comes to applying icing, and it could also be that the recipes themselves are not the best, but it is probably because I have no real experience yet that lends to reading and handling icing. I found that the relationship between the recipes below and above rest in the icing, so attempting the mere variations twice in one month has certainly educated me...



All-in-One Chocolate Cake
(from Diana Henry's Cook Simple)

For the Cake:

125g/4.5oz self-raising flour, sifted
pinch of salt
55g/2oz cocoa powder
3 eggs, lightly beaten
175g/6oz caster sugar
175g/6oz unsalted butter, softened and diced
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons warm water

1) Pre-heat oven to 190 C/375 F.
2) Put all ingredients but warm water into a bowl or food processor and beat until combined.
3) Add water slowly and combine again.
4) Pour cake batter into a greased cake tin, preferably 20cm/8" springform, though I used 22cm/9" and it worked out well, but the cooking time was shorter, for the cake was not as thick.
5) Place cake on the middle rack in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until done.
6) Turn out of springform and leave to cool on wire rack.

For the Icing:

150g/5.5oz chocolate, broken into pieces
75ml/2oz sour cream
75ml/2oz heavy cream
5 tablespoons dark brown sugar

1) Put all ingredients in a bowl that is to be suspended over summering water (the water should never touch the bowl and should not bee too hot) and allow ingredients to melt.
2) Stir ingredients together and take off the heat.
3) Leave icing to cool and thicken.

In terms of presentation, I slathered the icing all over the cake and coated it with toasted slivered almonds - hazelnuts might have been better, but chocolate pairs pretty well with all nuts.

This is the perfect cake to whip up at a moment's notice - but for the softened butter. Even the most baking-averse person could achieve this, a simple though flavourful chocolate cake. As always, you could substitute one-third of the flour with a nut flour (such as almond or hazelnuts) for added sophistication in the general flavour profile, but this cake can stand well on its own - so much so that I might go so far to consider it my stand-by when I'm in a pinch.

What special cake recipe do you rely on for social gatherings?

Labels: Chocolate, Chocolate Cake, cookies, Diana Henry, Martha Stewart

If it weren't for my basic biblical and Islamic knowledge, I would have assumed that the Queen of Sheba was a notoriously haughty woman who did as she pleased, a non-fictional, pre-Common Era Duchess of Langeais. This impression stems from the colloquialism in the title of this post (but for the French name for the queen). In fact, I recall a few childhood moments witnessing my mother's frustration as women cut in front of her in queues or acted superior to her when they were the ones behind the counter. Out of an offending woman's earshot, my mother would mutter under her breath, "Who does she think she is? The Queen of Sheba?"

The Queen of Sheba is recorded to have travelled from the areas of contemporary Eritrea and Ethiopia to Jerusalem as a monarch conducting international affairs. She was impressed by King Solomon's wisdom, to whom she presented many questions and riddles, and submitted to monotheism.

What the gâteau, reine de Saba, has to do with the Queen of Sheba, I do not know. I have thus far not been able to find a connection between the two and have thus invented it: 1) The cake contains almonds, which are part of the regular diet in Ethiopia; 2) The cake is rich, and the Queen of Sheba is recorded as being a very wealthy monarch, having gifted a load of gold to King Solomon.

Reine de Saba with Glaçage au chocolat
(from Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck's Mastering the Art of French Cooking)

For the cake:

120g/4 oz chocolate (I used 68%)
2 tablespoons espresso (or rum)
113g/4 oz unsalted butter
2/3 cup and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, divided use
3 eggs, divided into yolks and whites
pinch of salt
1/3 cup finely ground almonds
1/4 teaspoon bitter almond extract
1/2 cup flour (cake flour is also good), scooped, levelled and sifted

1) Pre-heat oven to 180 C/350 F.
2) Butter and flour a cake tin (I used a 23cm/9" springform pan).
3) Create a double-boiler and set chocolate and espresso on top, letting the chocolate melt while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
4) Cream the butter and 2/3 cup of sugar until pale and fluffy.
5) Beat in the egg yolks.
6) In a separate bowl, such as a clean stainless steel bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks are formed.
7) Sprinkle one tablespoon of sugar on the soft peaks and beat until you have stiff peaks.
8) Blend the melted chocolate into the creamed mixture.
9) Stir in almonds and almond extract.
10) Stir in 1/4 of the beaten egg whites to lighten the density, then gently fold in the remaining egg whites 1/3 at a time, interspersed with additions of flour by the third.
11) Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake on the middle shelf in your oven for approximately 25 minutes.
12) The cake is ready when it has puffed slightly and 6cm/2.5" around the circumference are set (a toothpick test in this section should be clean, and it should be oily if poked into the centre of the cake).

For the icing:

60g/2 oz chocolate (again, I used 68%)
2 tablespoons espresso
56g/4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1) Melt chocolate with espresso in a double-boiler.
2) When perfectly smooth, remove from heat and beat in butter one tablespoon at a time.
3) A spreading consistency needs to be achieved. As the icing is cooling, you can beat over a bowl of ice until spreading consistency is reached.

Decorating the cake with almonds tells your quests that there almonds are present in the cake. As I mentioned around this time last year, almond flour adds depth of flavour and imparts a moist result. Reine de Saba is rich beyond belief; it is both dense and creamy.

I don't who she thinks she is, but reine de Saba is welcome to turn up any time an easy-to-make and rich cake is desired.

Labels: Afternoon Tea, Chocolate Cake, French, Julia Child, Reine de Saba cake

I thought that I was like most people, which is to say: I thought that I was a chocolate-lover. This year has taught me that I don't especially care for it in all forms, mostly because I don't think it is always accented enough. My angelheart Eric will tell you that I scoff chocolate biscuits (cookies) if they're around, and he'd be right. But that is only because they are in the pantry, from which I have taken many a biscuit. It's not a chocolate addiction, but a habit of snacking when I need a break from trying to read and write my thesis.

In its least overworked form, which is to say melted with cream and formed into a truffle, chocolate can satisfy me. But I think that my favourite use of chocolate is in a cake or pudding. I love it to be rich in chocolate goodness and never diluted of flavour. Too many flavourings are a bad thing in my books when it comes to cooking with chocolate - and though I am sad to say it, I don't often go in for fancy truffles that incoporate every ingredient under the sun (I might however be attempted to try some of Vosges' delights, following the review by Garrett of Vanilla Garlic). I find that even a small amount of freshly ground coffee heightens the flavour of the chocolate. And I am a sucker for pairing brandy with chocolate. (I'm sure, by now, you have seen that brandy is my preferred plonk with which to bake and cook.)

You can melt chocolate on a stovetop or in a microwave. If you are going to use your stovetop, a double-boiler will need to be constructed out of a saucepan and a non-reactive bowl. Bring water in the saucepan to a boil then turn down to simmer. Place a bowl over the saucepan, into which is placed the chocolate. The bottom of the bowl should never touch the water. Chocolate melts at 30 C/95 F but burns, splits and cannot be used if it reaches or surpasses a temperature of 50 C/120 F.

Dense Chocolate Cake
(Adapted from Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess)

225g/1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 2/3 cups brown sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
120g bittersweet (70%) chocolate, melted
1 tablespoon coffee, freshly ground
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 cup boiling water
1 tablespoon brandy

1) Preheat oven to 190 C/375 F.
2) Butter and line your baking vessel. A 23 x 13cm/9 x 5" loaf pan is ideal. I used a 24cm/9" springform cake pan. I have one loaf pan, which is half the dimensions, and I didn't not want to halve the recipe for fear of seeming miserly. I couldn't think quickly enough as to what I would do with the remainder of the batter, save for eating it (I'm not above eating raw egg and flour - goodness only knows how often I ate the biscuit dough when mum wasn't looking), hence the springform pan. Place baking vessel on a lined baking sheet in case there is a bit of spillage.
3) Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.
4) Beat eggs in well.
5) Fold in the melted and slightly cooled chocolate until blended, but do not overbeat because there is still more folding to come.
6) Combine coffee, flour and bicarbonate of soda.
7) Add flour and bicarb mix by the spoonful to the chocolate mix alternately with a spoonful of boiling water. This takes a while to do, folding with each addition, but it only requires patience, not technical prowess.
8) Stir in the brandy.
9) The batter will have the appearance of swamp mud - that is to say, it will look quite liquid.
10) Pour into prepared baking vessel.
11) Bake for 30 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 163 C/325 F to bake for a further 15 minutes.
12) The loaf will not pass a skewer test, for it is meant to be quite damp in the centre, but the outside should look done.
13) Cool completely on a rack before opening the springform pan or turning it out, if in a loaf pan.

If using a loaf pan, the cake will sink in the middle because it is damp in the centre. The photo to the left should give you an indication of that. However, the top is fairly crisp, adding a textural contrast to the interior. As much as I love brandy, any more would have been overkill; one tablespoon is enough for the cake to be slightly boozy, making it acceptable to eat before cocktail hour.

Labels: Afternoon Tea, Cake, Chocolate, Chocolate Cake, Coffee, Nigella Lawson