HCB: Red Fruit Shortcake

This is Red, Blue, and Purple Shortcake. So named because in addition to strawberries, I used blueberries and frozen marionberries.

I didn't use raspberries, as the recipe prescribed.

I planned to do so. Last Thursday I went to the grocery store and bought strawberries and raspberries, 2 pounds each. They were on sale, so I thought why not!

I went home and told hubby that 1 pint of raspberry is for me and 1 pint for him. I also warned him that some of the strawberries will be for dessert. So don't eat it all, I said.

On Saturday morning, I wanted about to start on the cake. First order of business, macerating the berries. I opened the fridge and found strawberries but no raspberries. Asked husband and apparently he had eaten all of the raspberries.

They were that good! :)

TCB: Strawberry Maria

This is Strawberry Maria from The Cake Bible - sans the Chocolate Lattice Band. I decorated this ala Hector. The cake comprises of Genoise Au Chocolat and frosted with Strawberry Cloud Cream.

It was my 1st time making Genoise Au Chocolat - so I was a bit nervous. Genoise sometimes is a hit and miss for me. Remember this one? Well turns out I had good baking mojo on Saturday, as this genoise could not have turned out better.

The Strawberry Cloud Cream was pretty easy. I let the frozen strawberries thaw on the counter overnight. Then while the liquid is boiling, puree the strawberries, then combined both. The good thing with strawberries is that the seeds are so soft that you don't have to strain it out.

Decorating the cake is not as hard as I thought! Hector was right! Piping this was easier than piping small roses for the Golden Lemon Almond Cake a couple of weeks ago. My only issue was that the cloud cream is pretty soft, it was hard to get it to stay straight on the sides and my rose center looks like they want to just blend together!

Tasting impression:
This cake got rave reviews from my friends. People were taking 2nd and 3rds. Comments are "the cake is very light", "it's not too sweet", "the frosting taste like strawberry ice cream", "did you use real strawberries", "I'm going for another piece." I couldn't be happier!

TCB: Genoise Classique with Strawberry Mousseline

I made Genoise Classique last weekend - recipe from The Cake Bible. Initially, I split the recipe in half and baked in a 7 inch pan. The genoise turned out so beautifully - not disasterously as it was a couple of weeks ago - that I couldn't resist baking another half recipe.



I truly think there's something amiss in the beurre noisette that I made last time. I think I cooked it too long. As soon as I sacrificed the egg mixture into it, it started bubbling up, even though the beurre noisette was only a bit warm.

Well, no such thing happened this time. When I mix it with the egg, no bubbling or any strange reaction happened. They blend together like they are meant to be!



Mousseline is my favorite buttercream so far. I love the taste, it's so light I don't feel I'm eating a stick of butter. And I thought since I've made it several times, I got it down. This is what happened people, when you got comfortable and you thought nothing will go wrong. You get failed mousseline. It didn't turn out to be silky smooth but grainy.

I've never made mousseline in the summer, so I am blaming the hot weather. Somehow baking and hot weather doesn't work for me. Maybe I should just stick to cooking for now and taking pictures with the new camera LOL!

Though it's not a success, I tried to decorate the cake. I was grateful that the buttercream hold it's shape and it tasted good. The grainy-ness is not noticeable when we eat it, it just looks funny. We ate half the cake already. It is flavored with strawberry sauce recipe from The Cake Bible as well and boy oh boy, I can tell you the strawberry sauce is a killer!

HCB: Saint Honore Trifle

Whenever I think about trifle, I always think about that episode of Friends where Rachel made a trifle that turned out into a disaster. Do you know that episode? The other page of the recipe was stuck together so she made a trifle that is part a dessert but consist of ground beef. Ross said it tasted like feet and could hardly swallow it. As you can probably guessed, Joey loved it and he ate it heartily :).

My trifle is not going to contain ground beef, mind you. And it also does not taste like feet LOL.

A little background story...

I was not planning to make this trifle. For one thing, I don't have a trifle bowl, and not planning on getting one. Second excuse is that I have had trifle before and was not impressed (though you think by now I should trust Rose to change my opinion). But then I told myself, the recipe is 5 pages long! Somehow the idea of making 5 pages long trifle does not appeal to me. Why, you say, how could I think that way. Well that's just how I feel, this week at least :). Final reason was the spun sugar. Looks delicate and well, I tend to wreck delicate things...

I don't remember exactly what convinced me. Perhaps because it's been much discussed lately by the HCB. And also , isn't it the whole point of being in a baking group, to try new things and challenges! So I told myself that this trifle is worth the adventure, even if I have to spend the whole day for it (and in fact, it takes me about 4 1/2 hours to do).

10 AM. Making the beurre noisette. Halfway through waiting for the darn butter to brown - which takes forever - I thought to myself, I should have skipped it. I thought also of cheating and increasing the temperature, but the last time I did this, I burned the butter. So I persevered and waited. And then finally, oh my oh my... the butter turned into this golden brown thing that has such an amazing indescribably smell. Seriously, I had no idea butter could smell this good! I had to resist the temptation of dipping a piece of bread into it.

Next, I combined eggs and sugar and whisked them away above simmering water until lukewarm. Then they are whipped at high speed for 5 minutes until tripled and thick. One cup of egg is sacrificed into the beurre noisette goddess. Then a sifted mixture of flour and cornstarch are folded into the egg mixture until combined, followed by the folding the beurre noisette mixture.

Since I am planning on serving the trifle in wine glasses, I baked the cake in a cupcake pan. Only have 1 pan and only needed 1 as I've only made 1/4 recipe. I filled up each cavity of the pan up to almost full and the cake baked up really nice and spongy. And when it almost finished baking, the smell of heavenly beurre noisette appeared again, yum!

I'll skip telling you the sugar and strawberries part as it's easy and self- explanatory. I used the strawberries as-is (no sugar added) as they look pretty ripe. Plus, I like my strawberries to have a little bit tartness in it.

12 PM. Next is the Chiboust cream. I have a couple of vanilla seeds stashed. The seeds were scraped into the milk while the pods are swimming in fridge with the cream. Milk were brought to a boil while the egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla seeds are combined. Then the gelatin and cornstarch, and next is the hot milk is slowly added. The whole concoction is then returned to the stove and cooked until thickened. Add in the vanilla and grand marnier, then cooled to room temperature. To speed the cooling process, I placed it in an ice bath. It took 15 minutes to cool it. Then I whip the cream and fold in the pastry cream.

1.30 PM. Now the fun part: composing the cake. I put some sliced strawberries at the bottom of each wine glass, put a dollop of cream, then one layer of cake, a generous portion of boozey sugar syrup, then repeat again with the strawberries, cream, cake, syrup. Once all 3 glasses are decorated, I stored it in the fridge while I make the whipped cream.

I decided on making the gelatin-stabilized whipped cream (p.446) since we won't be eating all the trifle on the same day. It's pretty similar method as the whipped cream.

Now comes the most anticipated part. And when I say anticipated, I mean with fear and well fear.

Let me begin by sharing a picture of my "work area" for the spun sugar. I don't subscribe to newspapers, so on the floor are junk mails. On the counter are my 2 wooden dowels - otherwise known as wooden chopsticks. Then you see my weapon of choice: 2 small forks taped side by side. I didn't have the heart to cut a whisk. It's not about the price, I know I can get one at a discount store for under $5. I feel it's cruel to cut whisks. Thankfully Rose gave the alternative to use forks :).



2.30 PM. 1/2 recipe of corn syrup and sugar are heated together over medium heat until it boils. Then, I increased the heat and boil until medium amber and 360 degrees. This was the point where I realized that my instant read thermometer only measures up to 300 degrees! Yikes! Let me tell you that I stared at that syrup mixture very intensely, not wishing to miss the milisecond where it turn to medium amber. Once medium amber is reached, poured the syrup into a pyrex cup. I dipped the forks into the cup to check and the caramel fell off the fork in droplets. I waited a few seconds, then checked again. They fell in strings. So I stood on my dining table chair, dipped the forks into the cup and vigorously wave back and forth, hoping the sugar would fall in long threads onto the chopsticks. What ended up happening is that I did have small droplets, even though I tried to move my hands very quickly. Oh well, I continued. Since I only have 1/2 recipe of the syrup, it hardened too quickly, and my forks hardened into it! I managed to pry them away and zapped the syrup for 10 seconds in the microwave. Then I continue to make more spun sugar, using the other chopsticks. This time I was more successful, very little angel’s tears in sight and I started to enjoy this whole business of spinning sugar. At the same time, I poked my pinkie on one of the small sharp edges of the caramel at the edge of the pyrex cup and it started bleeding a little. Right then and there I decided I had enough fun for the day and settled for 2 little curved spun sugar on top of 2 of the wine glasses. My pinkie is okay, not badly damaged, though it still hurts the next morning.

So there you are folks. Not too bad of an adventure of spun sugar. I ended up with one slightly bleeding pinkie, some sugar on the kitchen shelves and dining chair, no sugar on the ceiling. Cleanup is not too bad, the sugar was easy to peel off.



Tasting impressions: Oh my goodness! This trifle is to die for! Seriously!!! Easily an 8 rating, super yummy! The strawberries play a crucial role, in my opinion, as it smells so wonderful. It tastes pretty light, in that I easily eat the whole glass myself in mere minutes. I will definitely make it again, though probably for special occasions. I will definitely use the wine glasses as I like this look a lot.

HCB: Almond Shamah Chiffon

This cake is pretty easy to make. Sure, there are a lot of steps, but it's not that hard. First you have to blanch the almonds, then toast them. Wait until they cool and then grind them (I love my food processor). Mix the ground almonds with the dry ingredients.

Then, whip the yolks for 5 minutes until thick and ribbony (it takes 9 yolks to get the prescribed weight), add to it oil, water, almond extract, and vanilla extract - beat again to mix everything together. Then sprinkle the dry ingredients mixture on top. Since I only have 1 mixer bowl and 1 whip, I have to wash and dry them really well before proceeding to whip the egg whites (I don't like to do this).

Next, whip the egg whites. Pretty standard steps, whip on low until foamy, add cream of tartar, whip until soft peaks, then gradually add sugar until stiff peaks form. I have to say that cream of tartar does help stabilize the egg whites - can't tell you how many times I "broke" whipped egg whites in the past (easy to do in high altitude) and have to start over. Doesn't seem to have this problem now with cream of tartar in the mix!

After the egg whites achieved stiff peak, mix 1/3 of it into the flour/almond/egg yolks mixture until incorporated (this is called "sacrifice" in chef terms). Then fold in the remaining egg whites in 2 addition. I use a big spatula and my arm got tired at the end since it's a heavy batter. Then divide the batter into 2 pans (I actually weigh them to make sure I distribute them evenly). Into the oven it goes.

The cake smells so good coming out of the oven. I let it cool. Then using a serrated knife, trim off the top of the cakes. Apply the syrup (water and sugar boiled, cool to room temperature, and combined with amaretto disarono liquor). Since the cake become really fragile after being syruped, I syrup the bottom layer first, then proceeded to make the raspberry jam whipped cream before I continue with the syruping. I did this because I want to apply the whipped cream between the layers - so I don't have to move the cake after syruping.

For the whipped cream, I bought raspberry preserve and it has seeds on them. So I push the whole thing through a strainer to get rid of the seeds. I was hesitating about this, I though it was gonna be a pain to do, but it's actually not bad (can you tell that I'm in a baking mood, all these steps and I was still a cheerful bird!). I whip the cream in the pre-chilled mixer bowl & whisks - slowly increasing the speed until it's stiff peak, then incorporate the strained raspberry preserve. The result is this creamy heavenly raspberry whipped cream with a hint of pink color.

Continuing on with the recipe, I put a huge dollop of the cream between the layers, syruped the top layer of the cake, then apply the rest of the cream all over the cake. I started off using an offset spatula, this works pretty well for the top of the cake. For the sides, I use the bench scraper. It is sooooo much easier using bench scraper (whoever invented bench scraper should get some sort of award, if that person hasn't already!).

Now full disclosure: I was going to skip this week's cake selection. I'm not sure I like chiffon and this cake sounded too plain. Again, I was wrong. This cake is so moist and so yummy. I think I am changing my opinion on white cakes!

Lesson to be learnt: NEVER doubt Rose, if the recipe is lucky enough to make it to her book, it must be worth it, and this cake is anything but!!!