Cherry Cream Cake

Cream Cake

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 2/3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup heavy cream (35% butterfat)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation:

Beat eggs until thick; gradually beat in sugar. Sift together the dry ingredients. Stir in sifted dry ingredients alternately with cream and vanilla. Beat well.

Spread batter in 2 greased and floured round 8-inch cake pans. Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Amarena Cherry Buttercream

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
4-5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon Fabbri Amarena Cherry delipaste
3-4 tablespoons of milk

1. Beat butter until creamy, scrape bowl.
2. Add 2 cups of sifted powdered sugar, one tablespoon of milk and delipaste, beat until combined.
3. Add more powdered sugar (One cup at a time) along with milk (one tablespoon at a time) as needed to get to whatever consistency/sweetness you wish to achieve.

Lemon Hops Sorbet

So, I decided to experiment. Here's what I came up with:

Lemon Hops Sorbet

1 oz Citra hops

3 liters water

150 grams Fabbri Lemon L powder

950 grams sugar

50 grams dextrose

I started by boiling 1 oz of citra hops in the 3 liters of water for 4 minutes (using a grain sock as a filter). 

I refrigerated the hoppy water overnight then added my dry ingredients to it (Lemon L, sugar, dextrose) the next day. I used an immersion blender to get it mixed well and refrigerated the liquid mix over night. This was out of necessity, since our batch freezer was not hooked up yet, but I think it gave the ingredients time to bind and worked out well.

I used a hot process method where I ran the liquid mix through our Frigomat heater/mixer until it reached 65 degrees (in restrospect I may do this differently next time, but more on that later).

Then I ran the mix through our Taylor C118 batch freezer until I got the right consistency. It was my first time using this batch freezer, so it was kind of a guessing game.

The conclusion to my experiment is that I love this flavor profile, but the process needs tweaked. In the end, there was a slightly (too) bitter aftertaste (because hops is after all, naturally bitter). I can't decide if it was the variety of hops or the process. The second heating may have over-extracted the hops, or it may just be characteristic of the citra. I will give both a new variety of hops and a new method a try later and let you know how it goes.

In the mean time, here's a photo of the rest of my 4th of July themed case.

Dark Chocolate Pistachio Truffles

This process started out with some Ghirardelli chocolate chips, Fabbri pistachio delipaste and whole pistachios.

This was a first attempt at truffles so I stuck with a pretty basic recipe, but I found the end result to be more than satisfactory.

Dark Chocolate Pistachio Truffles
Yield: 20 Truffles
1 3/4 cups 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
1 cup finely chopped pistachios
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons pistachio delipaste

Directions:
In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer. Add the butter and stir until melted. Add the delipaste and stir until mixture is one solid color. Add the chocolate chips. Stir until completely melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and pour into a shallow bowl.

Cool, cover, and refrigerate the mixture until firm, at least 2 hours.

Using a melon baller or small spoon, roll the mixture into 1-inch balls. Roll each ball in the chopped pistachios. Enjoy immediately or refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Gelato and Beer, a heavenly match

Today I went over to Fat Lorenzo's and partook in an experimentation with Mike Lapitz, the creative mind behind their gelato.

First up was a gelato produced with Boulder Beer Company's "kinda blue."

We enhanced the flavor with a bit of our Fabbri blueberry delipaste and viola!

Now we are up close and personal with "kinda blue" gelato, available for your tasting pleasure at Fat Lorenzo's.

Next, we experimented with some Town Hall brews. We added some Fabbri apricot delipaste to the Masala Mama IPA to enhance some of it's brightness.

Then we worked with one of their Porters (I love me some dark and syrupy beers). The first round was enhanced with Fabbri moka and hazelnut delipastes. On the second round, we mixed it up with Fabbri coconut. The idea behind this was to bring out some of the flavors we were tasting in the beer. For this particular Porter we were trying to pull out the nutty notes, along with the smoky coffee flavor.

This my friends, is a thing of beauty.

Experimental Marshmallow Fondant

Anyone who is familiar with fondant knows that it looks great, but tastes.... ehh, so-so. As a result of this unfortunate coincidence, I decided to try Wilton's recipe for marshmallow fondant. It's pretty great. It tastes like circus peanuts, you remember that candy right?

Anyhow, here's some cupcake toppers made with the marshmallow fondant.

And, Luke Skywalker, of course.

The concept for this cake was taken from Eric Power's video for Tatooine by Jeremy Messersmith.

Cupcake Love

So, this blog fell off the radar (best laid plans and whatnot), but I'm bringing it back. I will be posting experimental recipes, art projects and so on. I will start off with some cupcake recipes I developed with Amoretti pastry ingredients some time ago.

Here’s the basic cupcake recipe that I have been using for my experiments (makes a dozen):

1/2 cup butter (room temp)
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (also try subbing sifted cake flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk

Be sure to add your favorite flavoring ingredient (See below inspiration).

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease 12 muffin cups.
Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and vanilla, beat until well blended.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
With mixer on low speed, alternately add flour mixture and milk. Mix thoroughly.
Evenly fill cups and bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean.

For Orange Cream Cupcakes:

Add 2 tablespoons of Amoretti’s Blood Orange compound and the zest from 1 orange.
Top with Cream Cheese frosting! (See recipe below)

For Blackberry-St. Germain Cupcakes:
Add 2 tablespoons Amoretti Blackberry compund, 1 teaspoon Amoretti Elderberry Blossom extract, and 1 teaspoon Amoretti Champagne extract.

Top with Berry Buttercream (See recipe below).

For Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes:
Add 2 tablespoons Amoretti Strawberry compound.
Top with Champagne buttercream!(See recipe below).



Cream Cheese Frosting:
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, 1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

Berry buttercream:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
4-5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons Amoretti Blackberry compund, 3-4 tablespoons of milk
optional: 1/2 cup of fresh blackberries and/or raspberries whipped into frosting. Yummmm.

1. Beat butter until creamy, scrape bowl.
2. Add 2 cups of sifted powdered sugar, one tablespoon of milk and blackberry compound, beat until combined.
3. Add more powdered sugar (One cup at a time) along with milk (one tablespoon at a time) as needed to get to whatever consistency/sweetness you wish to achieve.

***Champagne buttercream: Sub 2 teaspoons Amoretti Champagne extract for blackberry compound.

Valentine Times.

To start things off, here's a few holiday related creations.

Simple and hand-made, the way I like it.

This weekend I made a couple of Vanilla Bean cakes and filled them with strawberry mousse. Mmmm. One for Dana's birthday and one to bring to work for Valentine's day.

Here's the one for work, I tried my hand at the rose cake decorating technique that I have seen all over the internet. The tutorial is at i am baker. Unfortunately, I did not do it justice. I have been making my butter cream extra thick lately (so much so that it is difficult to use) and I over-compensated. It was a bit too runny and of course, whenever you are piping, consistency is key. I think it still turned out cute anyway. Hopefully it tastes delicious. I know it certainly smells good.

Last but not least, Dana's birthday cake. Happy birthday, D!