Rose's Heavenly Cakes (56 page)

Make the Buttercream

Beat in the butter by the tablespoon on medium-high speed. If the mixture starts to look curdled, increase the speed and beat until smooth before continuing to add more butter. Using a silicone spatula, scrape in the cooled melted chocolate and beat until smooth and uniform in color. Place the buttercream in an airtight bowl. Use it at once or set it aside for up to 4 hours. If keeping it longer than 4 hours, refrigerate it and bring to room temperature before using. Rebeat to restore the texture, but, to avoid curdling, not until the buttercream has reached room temperature.

Plan Ahead

Glaze the baby grands at least 6 hours ahead.

Special Equipment

14 foil cupcake liners, white inner liners still attached, coated with baking spray with flour, set in muffin pans

Preheat the Oven

Twenty minutes or more before baking, set an oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C.

Mix the Cocoa and Liquid Ingredients

In the bowl of a stand mixer, by hand, whisk the cocoa and boiling water until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent evaporation and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes. To speed cooling, place the mixture in the refrigerator. Bring it to room temperature before proceeding.

Add the oil and yolks to the chocolate mixture. Attach the whisk beater. Starting on low speed, gradually raise the speed to medium and beat for about 1 minute, or until smooth and shiny, and resembling a buttercream. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in the vanilla for a few seconds.

Mix the Dry Ingredients

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Make the Batter

Add half the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture. Beat on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the remaining flour mixture. Raise the speed to medium-high and beat for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. The mixture will be very thick.

Starting on low speed, add the egg whites. Gradually raise the speed to medium-high and beat for 2 minutes. The batter will now be like a thick soup. Using a silicone spatula, scrape it into a 2-cup or larger cup with a spout. Pour the batter into the prepared cupcake liners. They will be just under half full, ¾ inch from the tops.

Bake the Cupcakes

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a wire cake tester inserted in the centers comes out clean and the cupcakes spring back when pressed lightly in the centers. While the cupcakes are baking, make the ganache syrup. When the cupcakes are baked, set the pans on a wire rack.

Make the Milk Chocolate Ganache Syrup

In a food processor, process the chocolate until very fine.

In a 1-cup or larger microwavable cup with a spout (or in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring often), scald the cream (heat it to the boiling point; small bubbles will appear around the periphery). With the motor of the food processor running, pour the cream through the feed tube in a steady stream. Process for a few seconds until smooth. (Alternatively, grate the chocolate, place it in a small bowl, and stir in the scalded cream until the mixture is uniform in color.)

Transfer the chocolate syrup to a microwavable bowl and stir in the vanilla.

Apply the Syrup

Remove the cupcakes still in the muffin pan to a wire rack. While they are still hot, poke about 12 deep holes in each cupcake with a wooden skewer. Brush the cupcakes with syrup. It penetrates most readily when at least 110°F/43°C—almost hot to the touch. If necessary, reheat as it cools by giving it a few seconds on high power in the microwave. Allow them to sit for a few minutes, and then apply more syrup to fill the little holes left by the skewer. Continue applying the syrup until all of it has been used. There should be a thin coating covering the top of each cupcake. Allow the syrup to set until, when touched with a fingertip, it leaves no mark, about 1 hour.

Make the Lacquer Glaze

Have ready a fine-mesh strainer suspended over a medium metal bowl.

In a small bowl, place the ¼ cup of cold water and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Stir to moisten and soften the gelatin and allow it to sit for a minimum of 5 minutes. Cover tightly with plastic wrap to prevent evaporation and set aside.

In a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, whisk together the sugar and 1/3 cup of water. Stir constantly with the whisk until the sugar dissolves.

Remove the pan from the heat and, with the whisk, gently stir in the golden syrup and then the cocoa until smooth, making sure to reach into the corners of the pan. The mixture will be glossy. Using a silicone spatula, stir in the heavy cream.

Return the pan to medium heat and, stirring constantly, bring the mixture to the boiling point (190°F/88°C). Bubbles will just start to form around the edges.

Remove the pan from the heat and strain the mixture into the medium bowl. Cool slightly, for about 10 minutes. An instant-read thermometer should register 122° to 140°F/50° to 60°C. With the silicone spatula, stir in the softened gelatin until dissolved completely and no longer streaky.

Strain the glaze into a 2-cup heatproof glass measure or bowl. (Metal will impart an undesirable flavor if the glaze is stored in it.) Cool for a few minutes, stirring very gently so as not to incorporate any air. For these cupcakes, the glaze coats best when just made (80°F/26°C). If the glaze is made ahead and reheated, it will be thicker and should be used at 82° to 85°F/28° to 29°C.

After about 1 hour, the cooled glaze can be covered and refrigerated for up to 1 week or frozen for up to 6 months. Reheat it in a double boiler over hot, not simmering, water, or very carefully in a microwave with 3-second bursts, stirring gently to ensure that it doesn't overheat or incorporate air.

Lift the cupcakes from the pans and carefully remove them from the foil liners, leaving the white inner liners still attached to the cupcakes. Set the foil liners aside.

Glaze the Cupcakes

Place the cupcakes on a wire rack set on a 17¼ by 12¼ by 1-inch half-sheet pan or a large piece of aluminum foil to catch the excess glaze.

Use a regular tablespoon (not a measuring spoon) to coat the tops of the cupcakes with the lacquer glaze. Smooth it into place with the rounded back of the spoon in a circular motion. Some of the glaze will cascade over the sides and can be reheated and repoured. Use the aluminum foil as a funnel to pour the excess glaze back into the glass measure. Should they appear, any tiny bubbles can be pierced with a sharp needle. Allow the glaze to set for about 1 hour, or until just barely tacky when touched lightly with a fingertip. Set the cupcakes back in the foil liners. They are at their most shiny within 6 hours of pouring the glaze. To revive the shine, brush lightly with a soft brush (see
Brushes
) or wave a hair dryer set on low heat briefly over the cupcakes. If desired, encircle them with cupcake wrappers (see
www.fancyflours.com
).

Financiers—The Most Buttery Baby Cakes

Financiers (feeNAHNseeay) are simple little almond cakes consisting essentially of equal weights of sugar, egg whites, and beurre noisette (browned butter) and about one-quarter their combined weight of the ground almonds and flour. They often appear on the
mignardises
tray of tiny sweets often presented at the end of a meal at upscale restaurants and would also serve well as tea cakes.

The financier was invented in France more than a hundred years ago by the baker Lasne, whose bakery was on the Rue Saint-Denis, close to the Bourse, the financial center of Paris. The cake was said to have been named for the financiers who frequented the bakery, although the actual formula was based on the
visitandine,
a cake baked by nuns of the Order of the Visitation. Traditionally, financiers were baked in the shape of little gold bars. Nowadays, in America, the shapes vary widely—from bâteau to ridged rounds, thimbles, and even shells (which I find confusing because certain shapes suggest specific desserts, and when I bite into a shell-shaped cake, my taste buds reasonably expect a madeleine!). Silicone molds for baking have added immeasurably to the ease with which one can turn out hundreds of these little pastries.

I thought I knew what a financier was, but when researching an article on financiers in the New York area, I found no two were alike in shape, texture, or flavor. They are so individual that I have come to think of them as the pastry chef's fingerprint. The proportion of the five basic ingredients varies widely, with butter, for instance, ranging from 23 percent to as high as 28 percent.