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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Last Cake, Next Cake

Penny was wondering what I was doing by her window :)
Ladies and gentlemen, the vote is in. Everyone loved this cake.

Lois, who hasn't anticipated that the filling has to be made 3 hours in advance, so this became a 2 day project. It is all worth it though, as she liked this cake much better than her Grandma's German Chocolate Cake. "The cake has a lighter texture, more chocolate flavor and the filling is thicker and richer." Curious about the origin of the cake name, she did some research and yield interesting results. "The cake was originally created  by a Dallas housewife in the 1950s; she used German Baking Chocolate.  The manufacturer got news of this and began distributing the recipe on its chocolate which was developed by Mr. German in the 1850s."

ECL post her cake with no photos! (What's up with that???) But seriously I do sympathize as I have done this several times. The cake turned out good and is well received at the summer potluck she brought it too. "The cakes are moist, slightly spongy and nicely chocolatey. This cake is a real crowd pleaser." The goop, as she lovingly called the frosting, "is the best goop recipe I've tried--and I've tried a lot."

Kristina made the cake without the German component, that is, the goop. Instead of making the goop and finishing the cake, she went to see Harry Potter. Later on, she served the cake with ice cream, which I guess essentially makes this the Chocolate Ice Cream Cake as the cake component is the same. The cake is well received as well. "It is rich, moist, chocolatey, and fudgey. Almost brownie-like, but lighter. It really needs very little adornment, though as I said, it goes great with ice cream."

I wasn't sure who to pick for the FEATURED BAKER this week until I saw Melissa's photo of the cake. She adorned only half the cake with nuts, as one of her family members doesn't like nuts. "I know it looks a bit odd to have a half-decorated cake, but aside from that, I also found the yellow, dripy icing a bit creepy. Looking back at the book, it wasn't quite so drippy." Melissa hesitated about making this cake because "the photo in the book really didn't appeal to me and it isn't a cake that I'm familiar with." She was glad she didn't skip it because this end up being a chocolate cake that everyone liked. "The chocolate taste was nicely balanced and the cake was light yet moist." Melissa later on admitted the real reason she's glad she didn't skip the cake is because she's "learning so much about baking cakes. There seem to be new techniques every week. I seem to never know what's going to be asked of me next."

Next week we have the White Gold Passion Genoise. I'm sad to report that I could not find fresh passion fruit or passion fruit puree/concentrate so I hope you guys have more luck in your search. I went to three Latin markets and they have nada! I know it's available in several places online but I'm not willing to shell out exorbitant prices that they charge. So... improvisation will happen by way of citrus curd (lemon/orange).
 
The week after we have Coffee Chiffonlets w/ Dulce de Leche Whipped Cream. I have made this and it's delicious. If you love coffee, condensed milk, or just have an affection towards spongy cakes, this dessert is for you. It's easy to put together and tasted like something you've labored upon. The Dulce de Leche component is the hardest part and only because it requires baking it in a water bath in a 400 (or is it 450) degree oven for 1 1/2 hour. Rose said that the Dulce de Leche can be refrigerated for several days so you can plan ahead.

15 comments:

  1. Oh dear, I'd hoped to get under the wire for this one...my giant wedding cake post is almost up. I didn't make the German Chocolate filling, but wow did I make a lot of the cake.

    Jenn, around here they sell passionfruit puree in the freezer section of most supermarkets. But I guess that's New York.

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  3. Congratulations Melissa!
    Like Katya, I too have seen frozen passionfruit puree in the freezer section. It was with the other "ethnic" foods in the freezer section. Try that.

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  4. Congrats Melissa!

    I know, I know. I completely slacked on the photos. :(

    Jenn I hope you find the passionfruit puree!

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  5. Katya and Hanaa, thanks! I will try the local grocery again.

    ECL, I was only teasing you. Thank you for posting about your cake :).

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  6. Congratulations Melissa...

    And Jenn, I can send you some passion fruit your way.. let me know and it can be on its way tomorrow...

    Anyone else in need... let me know :)

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  7. Monica, are you serious???

    If you are, I'm not gonna refuse this wonderful offer! Thank you thank you thank you 1000x times...

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  8. Never let it be said that HCBers are not loyal, stalwart, and true. Missing some passion fruit? Someone will send it to you. Missing some Seville oranges? Someone will send them to you.

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  9. ב''ה

    Looks fantastic! It may take me a few days to gather the ingredients for this cake. I may have to attempt making my own condensed milk...

    Congrats Melissa!

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  10. Jenn.. the pulp is in the freezer and it should be rock solid in order to make the treek to the west... I will pack it up nice and send it to you overnight tomorrow... hopefully it will get there all nice and sound, probably not frozen, but a bit defrosted (sort of ready to use)... and you are tempting me to join you this weekend with this one... I do not love cooked fruit, but I adore passion fruit in all shape and form!

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  11. Marie, amazing isn't it? I still can't believe I'm gonna get passion fruit in the mail from a fellow HCBer!

    Monica, you are awesome! Thank you so much! I'm looking forward to Friday even more now :). And yes please join us. You can't equate curd with cooked fruit, c'mon, it's not like it's apple pie or something like that ^_^.

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  12. Mendy, would evaporated milk work for you? Rose specify in the book how to process that so it would work for the recipe.

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  13. looks so very delicious .. i love cakes .. YUMMY .. 2 thumbs up ..

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  14. jenn, your cake looks so beautiful and what a great photo with the suggestion of the cat behind it!

    the passion purée is worth the search--is there any better flavor in this world?!

    i'm off to hope to put the house back together after major renovation. normally i'd be testing recipes on vacation but i think it will take all of two weeks to restore order. so hard to decide what to keep and what to put in the salvation or ebay category!

    it won't be too long before i'm back to testing recipes for the next book. i look forward to see how you all like the white gold passion.

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  15. Oh! Thanks so much for the featured baker! I always look forward to weekend baking now because I feel like I've learnt so much and I've been thrilled with the results. I do think it's all Rose though, not so much me. And I have to confess that as I've got more and more hooked with every passing week I started dreaming about buying the specialty cake pans (bundts, baby cakes, stadium pans....) There may even have been some online shopping carts clicked through...just saying...free choice in a couple of weeks.

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