• about me
  • Daring Kitchen
  • Recipes

The Intrepid Baker

The Intrepid Baker

Tag Archives: chocolate

Image

A Cake for A Symphony

08 Wednesday Aug 2012

Tags

cake, chocolate, ganache, lemon, recipes

My super amazing, super talented, super gorgeous, super wacky baby sister was in England to play in the Aldeburgh World Orchestra last month. Her month long tour took her to the gorgeous seaside town of Aldeburgh (where we visited her and contributed to the decline of lobster population), Germany (where we boosted the Euro and German dairy farmers), Amsterdam (I’m trusting she was being sensible there!), and last but not least, London, where she played in the BBC Proms.

I am SO proud of my sister for playing in the Proms, being able to do what she loves and getting the opportunity to travel and meet new people. The concert was a major success – they played beautifully and successfully kept me from falling asleep during Britten, Mahler and Stravinsky. =D

Before jetting back to Japan, my sister stayed over and requested that I make her cake. I couldn’t have been more honored to make cake for my sister! What ensued after that was pure madness. Needless to say, I had big ambitions to make a cake and cover it with a chocolate collar and write or pipe out chocolate notes around the collar. Obviously, I have never made a chocolate collar and fretted about making one. Do I pipe/write out notes on a greaseproof paper and then pour chocolate on it? Do I wrap the cake in the chocolate and then pipe on the notes? None of that mattered as my plans came crumbling down. I decided to be smart and made mini cakes but what I didn’t take into account was that small cakes do not have the weight and stability to hold down frosting. I ended up with three small cakes…and only one looked barely acceptable. When my sister opened the fridge, she went straight for the ugly one! Bless her!

I made madeleines as well and added mini chocolate chips in the batter. I’m so thankful that I got to make cake for my sister and spend some time with her. Next time there will be a cake piped with a full music score waiting for her!

Recipes for the chocolate cake and madeleines can be found here and here.

Advertisements

Share this:

  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Posted by theintrepidbaker | Filed under Cake, Dessert, recipes

≈ 6 Comments

Image

Nina’s Birthday – Chocolate Cake with Homemade Sprinkles

17 Thursday May 2012

Tags

birthday, bunting, cake, chocolate, frosting, homemade, recipes, sprinkles

It feels like it’s been a flurry of birthdays over the past few weeks and to be honest, I’m loving it! It is such a pleasure celebrating and sharing the joy with people. I’m also finding that I get quite a kick out of researching and planning, and also the very short timescales I have to bake and decorate my cake.

Nina celebrated her birthday last weekend and she picked a Cuban theme. I wanted to somehow incorporate that into the cake and decided that the cake would have red and blue and white at the very least. To add to the festive mood, I decided to make mini buntings specially for Nina. I was also inspired by a post by iambaker that I also decided to make my own sprinkles.

First, I printed the buntings from this site and cut them out, glued them onto some baker’s twine and tied them around two wooden skewers. Simples!

Next, I got to work on the sprinkles. This was a little trickier as I have never made sprinkles and did not know what consistency they should be (a little thicker than cake frosting). I was also not very used to just piping dots, so a lot came out looking like teardrops or just long dashes. And the dots weren’t exactly uniform in size too! The sprinkles dried overnight but they weren’t as shiny as I expected them to be. I am not sure if it is the coloring that I used or if it was because I substituted golden syrup for agave nectar. I’ll experiment more next time and will pipe out different shapes as well. Can’t wait!

Since I have a new found obsession for tall cakes (I’m having cake height complex), I made two cakes in one night. I’m the midnight baker! Yeeha! Frosting the cake was so easy since I was going for the rustic look :) I’m just very happy to have made the cake for Nina and that she liked it! Now if only cake had no caloric impact…

Chocolate Cake with Homemade Sprinkles

Chocolate Cake
(for a taller cake, double the recipe and bake in 2 tins)
9 tbsp cocoa powder
1½ cups cake flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
½ cup strong coffee (or water)
½ cup milk
 
Preheat the oven to 180°C and line 2x 20cm/8in round deep cake tin with greaseproof paper.
 
Sift together the cocoa powder, flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl.
 
Cream the butter and sugar about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until fully incorporated.
 
Mix together the coffee/water and milk. Beat in half of the dry ingredients and liquids. Beat in the other half of the dry ingredients until smooth. Pour batter into pan or divide batter evenly among the prepared pans. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center of each layer comes out clean, 45-60 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool in tin, then place on a wire rack and cool completely.
 
Homemade Sprinkles
Adapted from here
 
½ cup icing sugar
1 tbsp milk
1 ½ tbsp light corn syrup/agave nectar
¼ tsp vanilla extract
food coloring
 
Mix all ingredients well in a bowl. For easy piping, the consistency should be a little thicker than cake frosting. if the consistency is too runny, just add more icing sugar. If it is too thick, add a little milk or corn syrup/agave nectar. Transfer icing into a baggie and snip off a very small corner and pipe out dots onto a greaseproof paper. Leave to dry overnight.
 
Assembly
Fill and frost cake as desired. Sprinkle sprinkles onto the cake and gently smoosh in with the palm of your hands to make sure they do not fall off.
 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Posted by theintrepidbaker | Filed under Cake, Dessert, recipes

≈ 7 Comments

Image

Matcha (Green Tea) and Chocolate Sponge Marble Cake

07 Monday May 2012

Tags

cake, chocolate, green tea, marble, matcha, recipes

It all started with an itch. Just a tiny itch. For cake. Nothing too fancy. Just simple, soft, cottony cake. No need for frosting or any fuss around it. That’s not being too demanding, is it?

Once again, I couldn’t decide which flavor to go for. As the saying goes, when undecided, do both. Simples! A good old fashion marble cake is perfect when you can’t decide what flavor of cake you want. It is also pretty enough to stand alone without any frosting. I used my Matcha Sponge Cupcake recipe but tweaked it a little to make the marble cake. It takes some technique to swirl the batter in order to get the right amount of marbling. Too much swirling will only blend the colors and will not give you the marbling effect. I learned to scoop in alternate spoonfuls of batter to create a checkerboard effect, and then zig zag a skewer through the batter. I am still working on perfecting the technique, but I’m quite happy with how they turned out.

Once again, I went for the chocolate and matcha/green tea flavor combination. I love the contrast between both flavors but somehow I don’t think my friends do. Is it just me or are there any other like minded people out there? Please let me know what you think of chocolate and green tea!

Matcha (Green Tea) and Chocolate Sponge Marble Cake
Adapted from here
 
4 eggs
¾ cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp matcha powder
1 tbsp cocoa powder
 
Preheat oven to 190C. Prepare 2 paper loaf molds, or line an 8″ cake tin with greaseproof paper and set aside.
 
Sift flour and baking powder and set aside. With a mixer, beat the eggs and add sugar while beating until frothy and almost doubled in size. Lower the speed of the mixer and slowly add the flour and baking powder. Add water. Beat until combined but do not over beat.
 
Divide batter into two equal parts. Sieve cocoa powder over one half of the batter and fold together. Repeat with matcha powder for the other half of batter.
 
Alternate spoonful of chocolate and matcha batter into the mold to create a checkerboard effect. Using a skewer or knife, make swirls in the batter to create a marbling effect. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool before serving.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Posted by theintrepidbaker | Filed under Cake, Dessert, recipes

≈ 2 Comments

Image

Ono’s Birthday Cake – Chocolate Cake with Cigarillos and Raspberries

29 Sunday Apr 2012

Tags

birthday, cake, chocolate, frosting, fruit, recipes, smb, swiss meringue buttercream

Contrary to what a lot of people think, traveling for work is not fun. My blog and kitchen have been woefully neglected for the past 2 months and there is no end in sight. *sad face*. On the plus side, my hotel in Germany has breath taking views of the Alps. So breath taking that we always drive towards the Alps and nearly miss our exit. It’s also breath taking in the sense that it can smell of…farmland. Ahhh, the perks of working amongst cows, both literally and figuratively. But mainly figuratively. I digress…

Waaaaayyy back in the day when life as I knew didn’t consist of turning around laundry on the weekends, Ono asked me to make her a cake and I jumped at the chance to do so. Ono then sent me a recipe of a cake made by Lorraine Pascale, requesting that i make THAT cake for her. Let me get this straight. I am no fan of her and the recipe and “directions” only strengthened my dislike of her. Fold in 2 eggs and half the flour into the creamed butter? That made my batter curdle! (my eggs were not cold, and the butter was soft). The batter in Lorraine’s recipe was so thick that I had to add lots of splashes of milk. Experience tells me that baking in a deep 8″ tin will take an hour. But Lorraine only tells you to bake for 30-40 minutes. I tried to stay as true to the recipe as I could for Ono’s sake, but I had to make 2 cakes to get the height I wanted, and I made a Swiss Meringue Buttercream instead. I cut down the sugar in the cake but still found it too sweet. That said, everything worked out ok as the SMB balanced out the sweetness of the cake. I just wish I could have used my go-to recipe or my heavenly devil’s food cake recipe.

At the end of the day, I have to say that the cake was a success and it stayed moist and fluffy. Most importantly, the birthday girl loved it! So all is not lost :)

Chocolate Cake with Cigarillos and Raspberries
Adapted from here
 
(for a taller cake, double the recipe and bake in 2 tins)
200g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
4 eggs
140g plain flour
60g cocoa powder
pinch of salt
2 tsp baking powder
milk. lots of it.
 
Preheat the oven to 180C and line 2x 20cm/8in round deep cake tin with greaseproof paper.
 
Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add half of the eggs and half of the flour and mix well. Add the rest of the eggs, flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder and beat until combined. If the batter is too thick, add in a little milk at a time, mixing well. Dollop into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin.
 
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
1 cup sugar
5 large egg whites
453g unsalted butter, cubed
 
Place sugar and egg whites in a heat proof bowl. Set bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, and whisk constantly until sugar has dissolved and egg whites are hot to the touch. The mixture between your fingers should feel completely smooth when rubbed between fingers.Remove bowl from heat. Using an electric mixer, beat on high speed until mixture has formed stiff and glossy peaks. Add the butter, one cube at a time, and beat until incorporated after each addition. Don’t worry if the buttercream appears to curdle; it will become smooth again with continued beating. Add vanilla beans and beat just until combined.
 
Decorations
400g chocolate cigarillos (about 75–80 in total)
400g raspberries, or any berries/fruit of your choice
 
Assembly
Tort, level and split each cake into 2 layers. Brush off crumbs. In the meantime, make the Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Place some buttercream in a baggie and snip off the end. Pipe the buttercream around the edge of the cake and place a dollop of buttercream in the middle. Spread and even out the buttercream. Place a layer of cake on top and repeat until all layers are filled. Crumb coat and chill for at least 30 minutes.
 
Apply another layer of buttercream. Arrange cigarillos around the cake, making sure there are no gaps. Top with raspberries or fruit of your choice.
 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Posted by theintrepidbaker | Filed under Cake, Dessert, recipes

≈ 11 Comments

Image

Sam’s Birthday Cake – Chocolate Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream

24 Saturday Mar 2012

Tags

birthday, cake, chocolate, frosting, ganache, recipes, smb, swiss meringue buttercream, vanilla

The only time I get to make a full sized cake is when there is an occasion for many people to come together and eat cake. So when Sam’s birthday came up last week, I jumped at the chance to make a cake for him. Sam gave me free rein to do whatever I want with his cake (thanks Sam!), which of course means chocolate cake!!

The cake was a breeze to make, and keeps well if you need to make it days in advance. Just cool completely and double wrap it in cling film and foil to keep the cake moist. I learned how to make the Swiss Meringue Buttercream during my class with Leigh last year and decided to flex/test my “new” found skills. I really like SMB as it is not overly sweet and the texture is so silky smooth.

I learned a new technique of filling the cake – place some buttercream in a baggie and snip off the end. Pipe around the edge of the cake before “filling” the cake as this will prevent the frosting from oozing out. I can proudly say that my crumb coating skills this time are actually much better!

However, I guess it can now be safely said that nothing in my kitchen goes smoothly, especially when it comes to frosting. While chilling my cake after crumb coating, I made the fatal mistake of putting the buttercream in the fridge as well. ARGH!!! The buttercream hardened and I couldn’t bring it back to a spreadable consistency. I tried to bring it back to room temperature and beat it again but the oil seemed to be leaking out and it looked as if it had half curdled. I hurriedly made another batch but this time it just wouldn’t come together and down the sink it went. Already running late for the dinner, I had to resign myself to yet another failed cake. The top of the cake looked good enough without any crumbs so I made some ganache and poured it on the edges of the cake. It would have looked so much better if I had paid more attention to pouring the chocolate! Overall, I am pretty happy with the cake and it tasted great!

I learned two very important lessons that day:
1. Pipe a wall around the edges of your cake to make it easier to spread.
2. NEVER chill your unused SMB in between frosting!
And of course, the biggest lesson that I never seem to learn: Never cook when you’re in a hurry (or angry)!

Perfectly Moist Chocolate Cake
Original recipe found here
 
340g unsalted butter
¾ cup cocoa powder
½ cup boiling water
2 ¼ cups sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs
3 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
 
Heat oven to 180C. Line an 8″ deep cake tin (or 3 8″ cake tins) with greaseproof paper and set aside.
 
Sift cocoa into a medium bowl, and whisk in boiling water. Set aside to cool.
 
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on low speed until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down sides twice. Beat in vanilla. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
 
In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk milk into reserved cocoa mixture. With mixer on low speed, alternately add flour and cocoa mixtures to the batter, a little of each at a time, starting and ending with flour mixture.
Pour batter into pan or divide batter evenly among the three prepared pans. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center of each layer comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes, rotating the pans for even baking. If baking in a single pan,  bake for 50-60 minutes. Transfer layers to wire racks to cool.
 
Swiss Meringue Buttercream with Vanilla Beans
Adapted from here
 
1 cup sugar
5 large egg whites
453g unsalted butter, cubed
2 pods vanilla seeds
 
Place sugar and egg whites in a heat proof bowl. Set bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, and whisk constantly until sugar has dissolved and egg whites are hot to the touch. The mixture between your fingers should feel completely smooth when rubbed between fingers.Remove bowl from heat. Using an electric mixer, beat on high speed until mixture has formed stiff and glossy peaks. Add the butter, one cube at a time, and beat until incorporated after each addition. Don’t worry if the buttercream appears to curdle; it will become smooth again with continued beating. Add vanilla beans and beat just until combined.
 
Chocolate Ganache
100ml double cream
100g dark chocolate, chopped
 
Place chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Heat the cream in a saucepan. Once the cream starts to boil, pour it over the chocolate pieces. Let it rest for a minute, then stir gently until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Set aside for it to set. If the ganache becomes too hard, heat up in a microwave in 10 second bursts.
 
Assembly
Tort and level each cake. If making 1 cake, split cakes evenly into 3 layers. Brush off crumbs and refrigerate. In the meantime, make the Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Place some buttercream in a baggie and snip off the end. Pipe the buttercream around the edge of the cake and place a dollop of buttercream in the middle. Spread and even out the buttercream. Place a layer of cake on top and repeat until all layers are filled. Crumb coat and chill for at least 30 minutes. In the meantime, make the chocolate ganache. When the ganache has cooled, remove cake from fridge and pour the ganache around the edges of the cake, moving quickly. If you prefer to cover your cake, pour the ganache over the center of the cake. If necessary, tilt the cake a little to even out the ganache. Do not use a spatula to spread the ganache.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Posted by theintrepidbaker | Filed under Cake, Dessert, recipes

≈ 9 Comments

← Older posts

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 79 other followers

Follow Me!

 Subscribe in a reader

Archive

Categories

Blogroll

  • A Scientist's Love Affair with Food
  • Chewsome!
  • i am baker
  • Steamy Kitchen
  • The Little Teochew
The Foodie Blog Roll
Certified Yummly Recipes on Yummly.com
Foodies100 Index of UK Food Blogs
Morphy Richards
All recipes are on Petitchef
Advertisements

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
%d bloggers like this: