Rose's Heavenly Cakes (69 page)

In a medium bowl, whisk the cocoa, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla just until the consistency of slightly lumpy muffin batter.

Make the Batter

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt on low speed for 30 seconds. Add the butter and half the cocoa mixture. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Raise the speed to medium and beat for 1½ minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. With the mixer off between additions, add the remaining cocoa mixture in two parts, starting on medium-low speed and gradually raising the speed to medium. Beat on medium speed for 30 seconds after each addition to incorporate the ingredients and strengthen the structure. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Using a silicone spatula, spoon the batter into the prepared cupcake liners, smoothing the surfaces evenly with a small metal spatula. They will be about three-quarters full.

Bake the Cupcakes

Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the centers comes out almost clean and the cupcakes spring back when pressed lightly in the centers.

Cool and Unmold the Cupcakes

Let the cupcakes cool in the pans on wire racks for 10 minutes before unmolding onto the racks. Cool completely.

Make the Ganache "Mud"

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

In a 1-cup or larger microwavable cup with a spout (or in a medium saucepan, stirring often), scald the cream (heat it to the boiling point; small bubbles will form 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. Pulse in the vanilla. Scrape the ganache into a glass bowl and let it sit for 1 hour. Cover it with plastic wrap and allow it to cool for a few hours, until the mixture reaches frosting consistency.

Make the Soft Sticky Caramel

Have ready a 1-cup heatproof glass measure coated lightly with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium heavy saucepan, preferably nonstick, stir together the sugar, corn syrup, and water until all the sugar is moistened. Heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves and the syrup is bubbling. Stop stirring completely and allow the syrup to boil undisturbed until it turns a deep amber (360°F/180°C) or a few degrees lower because its temperature will continue to rise. Remove it from the heat, and as soon as it reaches temperature, slowly and carefully pour the hot cream into the caramel. It will bubble up furiously.

Use a silicone spatula or wooden spoon to stir the mixture gently, scraping the thicker part that settles on the bottom. Return it to very low heat, continuing to stir gently for 1 minute, or until the mixture is uniform in color and the caramel fully dissolved.

Remove it from the heat and gently stir in the butter until incorporated. The mixture will be a little streaky but becomes uniform once cooled and stirred.

Pour the caramel into the prepared glass measure and allow it to cool for 3 minutes. Gently stir in the vanilla and allow it to cool until no longer warm to the touch, stirring gently three or four times.

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.

Toast the Pecans

Spread the pecans evenly on a baking sheet and bake for 7 minutes to crisp them slightly and enhance their flavor. Stir once or twice to ensure even toasting and avoid overbrowning. Cool to room temperature.

Compose the Turtles

The quickest and easiest way to apply the ganache "mud" and the caramel is with a disposable pastry bag or a resealable plastic bag with one corner cut in a semicircle to make a round opening. The turtles will come out just as pretty using a small metal spatula, and you can even apply the cooled caramel with buttered fingers. Measure using teaspoons for the first one to see how much ganache and caramel are intended, and then you can do the rest by eye. Pipe or spread 2 teaspoons of ganache onto the top of each cupcake. Make a quarter-size hollow in the center and pipe or spoon 1 teaspoon of caramel into it. (If the caramel is too firm, reheat it for a few seconds in the microwave.)

On top of each cupcake, arrange 5 pecans in a star formation that resembles a turtle head and feet. Press them into the caramel and chocolate. (If they don't hold well, set the cupcake in the freezer for a minute or two to firm up the caramel and chocolate.) Pipe or spoon another teaspoon of caramel on top of the center of the pecans and pipe or spread another teaspoon of ganache on top. Press 5 to 7 Les Perles or upside-down mini semisweet chocolate chips, if using, into the chocolate.

Chapter 5: Wedding Cakes

Wedding cakes present the greatest challenge but also the greatest visual opportunity of all cakes. They need to be spectacular—elegant, but not fussy—and they need to be moist enough to give you sufficient time to decorate them. This is a tall order indeed, but here I have created five cakes that meet the criteria. They include, for example, a fabulous chocolate cake with chocolate lacquer glaze and a delicious groom's cake with a hidden treasure of fudgy brownie baked into the already tasty chocolate cake. I've also included instructions for making four different varieties of wedding cupcakes.

Extra Sheet Cakes

The average wedding cake consists of three tiers: 12 inches, 9 inches, and 6 inches. It can feed 150 people. I find it both impractical and undesirable to make larger round tiers. The texture suffers, becoming less fine, and larger tiers are hard to serve in a timely manner: By the time all the cake is served, half the guests may have departed.

For a larger number of servings, you can bake and frost extra layers to be plated behind the scenes. For example, one 12-inch layer will make about 40 more servings. One 18 by 12 by 2-inch sheet pan is the equivalent of two 12-inch layers and will serve 80. But to prevent doming in these large pans, you must increase the leavening slightly for the butter cakes.

The Deep Chocolate Passion is an exception, as it needs ½ teaspoon less baking powder rather than more. (If you choose the 100 percent all-purpose flour version, use only 2¼ teaspoons baking powder.) The baking soda remains the same.

For the cakes with syrup, use the same amount as indicated for the two 12-inch layers. There is no need to frost the sides of a sheet cake, so you will need about 4 cups extra frosting for the top. For the Deep Chocolate Passion, however, you will need to increase the Dark Chocolate Lacquer Glaze recipe by one and one-third to ensure that you have enough to cover the top.

Baking the Cake Layers

Large cake pans, such as the 12-inch round ones and the 18-inch sheet cakes, benefit particularly from being encircled or wrapped with cake strips (see
Cake Strips
) before baking in order to slow down the baking at the edges. Because the edges are so far from the center of the pan, what happens is that by the time the center sets, it is higher than the sides and the outside edges are overbaked. The strips will keep the layers flatter on top and more moist near the outer edges.

Since cake pans require space between them and the sides of the oven walls for air circulation, you can either mix the batter for each one separately, in which case you can reduce the baking time slightly, or you can fill the cake pans immediately after mixing and refrigerate one while the other is baking. In this case, you will need to bake the refrigerated layer a bit longer (about 10 minutes, depending on the size of the pan).

Baking times are approximate, so be sure to check for doneness toward the estimated end.

If baking on two racks, stagger the pans so that one is not positioned directly over another one on the rack below. After three-quarters of the estimated baking time, for even baking, reposition the cakes quickly top to bottom and turn them halfway around.

Preparing the Layers for Frosting

Wedding cake layers need to be as level as possible. The layers for the
Deep Chocolate Passion Wedding Cake
are perfectly level, but some of the layers for the other wedding cakes such as the banana cake layers for the
Tropical Wedding Cake
will need to be leveled. If you need to level a cake that contains syrup, such as the cake layers for the
Golden Dream Wedding Cake
, first brush the layers on both sides with syrup. Reinvert the layers after you level them so that the firm bottom crust is up, which will make them easier to frost. Use a serrated knife that has a blade longer than the diameter of the cake to level it. Cake leveling knives (see
Leveling Knives
) also work well. Another method for leveling is to place the cake in the pan in which it was baked and use the rim of the pan as a guide for cutting with a long serrated knife. If the cake sits too low in the pan, you can raise it slightly by placing cardboard rounds underneath it.

To ensure that no cake crumbs get into the frosting, brush off any loose crumbs from the sides of the cake. If the sides are not well sealed with unbroken crust, before frosting the cake, brush them with heated strained apple or apricot jelly or piping gel and allow it to dry until it feels tacky before frosting the cake. It is also possible to apply a very thin layer of frosting to seal in the crumbs before proceeding with the rest of the frosting.

Unmolding the Cake

Large 12-inch layers need to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes before unmolding. To unmold the cakes, run a small metal spatula between the sides of the pan and the sides of the cake, pressing against the pan, to ensure the complete release of the cake's sides with crumb intact.

Syrups and Glazes

If you are applying syrups or glazes, after brushing the tops of the cakes with syrup, and leveling them if necessary, the bottom layer of each tier should be inverted directly onto a cardboard round of corresponding size and then brushed with more syrup.

Once syrup is applied to a cake, the cake becomes much more fragile and also sticky, making it more difficult to slide the top layers onto the bottom layers. For the top layers, I find it works best to apply the syrup to the top and bottom of the cakes, and to allow them to cool completely, which will help to firm them and flatten the tops. Then I invert the cakes to level them, if necessary, and reinvert them onto plastic wrap, coated lightly with nonstick cooking spray; nonstick aluminum foil—lined disks; or open-sided baking sheets (I often use the nonstick bottoms of tart pans). You will be better able to slide them off the sheet onto the frosted bottom layers.

Wrap the layers well with plastic wrap until ready to complete the cake.

Supporting the Cake for Frosting and Tiering

Each tier must be supported by a rigid but lightweight base. You can make your own from cardboard or purchase standard-size corrugated cardboard rounds (see
Cardboard Rounds
) that provide just the right distance between the sides of the cake and the edge of the cardboard for frosting, about ¼ inch.

The Cake Serving Base

In addition to the cardboard support rounds for each tier, you will also need a strong base to support the entire cake. Most cake decorating supply stores have sturdy foam-core cake bases in many sizes, covered with attractive foil. You can also make your own using ¼-inch plywood covered with florist foil or even ¼- to ½-inch sandblasted glass, or 1/8-inch Plexiglas or a mirror. I like the cake base to be 3 to 5 inches larger than the diameter of the bottom layer of the cake. In order to be certain that the cardboard round supporting the bottom cake layer does not slide on the cake base, I spread a thin layer of royal icing (see
Royal Icing, Gum Paste, and Crystallized Flowers
) on the cake base before setting the bottom layer on its cardboard round on top of it. It's fine to use a royal icing mix available from cake decorating supply stores (see
Ingredients Sources
).