Sweet and Salty Cake and a Giveaway - copy of Baked

A few months ago I blogged about seeing Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, the authors of Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. In that post, I mentioned that they encouraged anyone with moderate baking skills to bake their signature Sweet and Salty Cake. What I didn’t mention was that I bought an extra copy of their book to give away on my blog. I was eager to make the cake, but the quantities of butter, sugar, chocolate, and butter definitely make it a special-occasion cake, so I figured I would bake it when I had something to celebrate, like hitting one-hundred posts or my blogiversary, and give away the book at the same time. My blog recently hit one-hundred posts, which I would have mentioned before, but it was one-sentence-blog-post week and I had to be parsimonious with my words. And luckily, we have had an even more exciting reason to celebrate around here: I don’t usually like to talk about what we do between nine and five, but when Mr. Penpen was offered the new position that he had been hoping for, I found the perfect opportunity! Anyway, I finally got around to making the illustrious Sweet and Salty Cake and now I’m giving away the copy of the book. To enter the giveaway, just tell me your favorite kind of cake in the comment section. I will select the winner with a random number generator and announce the winner next week.



So the Sweet and Salty Cake. I was going to write this post yesterday, but I decided it was better to wait until I was a little removed from the experience, since by the time I got my sticky self out of the kitchen, I didn’t even feel like eating the cake. The cake has several components: a chocolate cake, caramel sauce, and whipped caramel ganache frosting, and I managed to have problems with two of them. The caramel sauce didn’t soak into the cake and I burned the first batch of caramel for the frosting (I look forward to the day when I have a successful caramel experience). My ineptitude frosting cakes didn’t help either, but that’s not the recipe’s fault, I just need more practice. In the midst of my problems, I looked up the cake online to see if other bakers had similar issues and found THIS POST at Sassy Radish where she renames the cake "I'm Going to Tear Hair Out of My Head and Curse Like a Sailor Cake.” That title seemed accurate at the time. I did not make the actual cake recipe in Baked. I had read on Sarah of Blue Ridge Baker’s blog that she wasn’t thrilled with the actual cake part and she seems to know her chocolate, so I tried a Devil’s Food cake from Cook’s Illustrated. The cake I made wasn’t my superlative chocolate cake, but covered with caramel it was quite yummy. Even after all the headaches, we thought the cake was fantastic. I gave the cake a 9.5 for Deliciousness and a 5 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 1.9. You can find the recipe HERE and HERE (and linked above on Sassy Radish, with some helpful tips), and it is definitely worth baking.



I decided since we were having such a special dessert, Eloise deserved a treat too, so I made her some pupcakes. Joy of Hot Oven, Warm Heart provided me with the recipe, and I’m sure she wouldn’t mind me passing it on to other dog lovers/bakers, I'm happy to email it. Eloise loved that I finally baked something just for her, though I fear that now she’ll become even more curious when I’m baking. I made the cupcakes minis, since she would devour the entire cake in one gulp either way. I had my camera on the sports/action setting in attempt to photograph her eating the pupcakes; she’s so fast that I really needed a video camera to record it.



And since this cake knocked my will to bake anything else yesterday, this is how far along I am on the TWD Creamiest Lime Meringue Pie.

An Unbaked Treat

If you came here looking for this week's Sweet Melissa Sundays treat, it'll be up a little later. Due to some poor planning, my Bee Stings are currently cooling.

A couple months back I blogged about my first, and so far only, trip to Omnivore Books on Food, a magical new bookstore in San Francisco. They have a lot of author events there, so I put myself on their email list to keep myself aware of any I may want to attend. When I received the May list of events, I noticed one I wanted to attend: Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, the authors of Baked: New Frontiers in Baking and owners of Baked bakery in New York City. Unfortunately, the “Baked” event was in the evening, and although I am an optimistic planner, the reality is I rarely feel like staying in the city after work - even to hear the creators of possibly the most awesome brownie I’ve ever baked speak. Fortunately, I pass Book Passage in the San Francisco ferry building twice every weekday (not to mention all the times I go in to browse); I check out their listings, too, and noticed that Matt and Renato would be there at 12:30 pm on a Wednesday. I decided attending that event would be a pleasant way to spend a lunch break.



I went, and Matt and Renato were delightful. They spoke briefly and then encouraged audience questions. It was fairly sparsely attended, so there were only a few questions (including mine). It was fun to hear about their experience of leave their previous professions, opening a bakery (and a second one), writing a book, and rising to baking fame. Here are a few highlights from the event:

• They brought brownies! Seriously, they were FedExed from the bakery in New York.
• Matt and Renato are eternally grateful to Oprah for selecting their brownies as a “favorite” in her magazine one month and increasing their mail-order sales exponentially; they said they have a photo of her in their office. And also to Martha Stewart for featuring them early on.
• They feel that the “American” bakeries have basically evolved into cupcakeries (often with vintage décor), and they wanted to get back to more of a classic bakery with a modern aesthetic. They do like cupcakes in moderation, though, and have some on their menu. (I hadn’t really thought of it before, but in the year – officially tomorrow – I’ve lived in Marin, I can think of three bakeries that have opened and all have been cupcake-centric and not that great. In fact, one is already closed.)
• Matt and Renato admitted to a few missteps in their time as bakery owners and one was called the “chocolate chubby,” which was a chocolate cake made with lard. They said they were a bit deceptive, as they did not specify on the menu that it had lard in it, and there were some upset people when they found out. They also mentioned that non-vegetarians shouldn’t be afraid of using lard, as it creates a delicious cake, and they may put the chocolate chubby in their next book (which is to be about regional desserts).
• The Root Beer Bundt Cake. A couple months back I participated in a bake-along hosted by Megan of My Baking Adventures and Nic of Bakeologie, and we baked the Root Beer Bundt Cake from Baked. Despite having two cups of root beer in the batter, plus another quarter cup in the frosting, the root beer flavor was imperceptible. It was a fantastic chocolate cake, though. I asked if there was a way to get it to taste more like root beer and less like chocolate, as I do want to make it again, but I crave the promised root beer punch. Matt and Renato recommended using a natural root beer with less sugar and more spice, getting your hands on some root beer schnapps, and adding more root beer to the frosting. I definitely want to make this cake again, so I am going to try it with their suggestions. You can find the recipe here on Megan’s site.
• They said that if you have moderate baking skills, they next thing you bake should be their Sweet and Salty Cake.

I would say I have moderate baking skills, and I am anxious to try the cake, but instead I made their Dark Chocolate Ice cream. I’m happy I did, as I had yet to make a successful chocolate-based ice cream, and as Mr. Penpen put, this one is “insanely good.”



Dark Chocolate Ice Cream from Baked, New Frontiers in Baking
8 ounces dark chocolate (60 to 72% cacao), finely chopped
4 large eggs
1 ½ cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder*

Place the chopped chocolate in the bowl of an electric mixer and set aside.** Whisk the eggs in a large bowl until just combined. Mix the cream, milk, sugar, and cocoa powder together in a small*** saucepan and bring to just a boil. When warm, remove from hit and slowly whisk a third of the chocolate mixture into the eggs, whisking constantly. Add the remaining two thirds in separate batches, then return the mixture to the saucepan over medium heat. Whisk constantly until the mixture begins to thicken and reads 170 degrees on a thermometer. Place a mesh strainer over the bowl containing the chopped chocolate and pour the warm mixture through it. Let sit for one minute, then whisk until combined.

Place the mixture in the refrigerator for at least four hours. When thoroughly chilled, whisk again until the mixture is thick and frothy. Freeze the mixture in ice cream maker, according to manufacturer’s instructions, until it looks like a very thick pudding. Scrape into an airtight container and freeze for at least six hours.

*The notes in the book say they initially used King Arthur’s black cocoa for this recipe, which was incredibly intense, so they recommend using only one tablespoon of that brand and three of regular unsweetened cocoa powder. I used Vahlrona, which was the darkest cocoa powder I had on hand, but I’m now dying to try this black cocoa.
**The instructions say to place the chocolate pieces in the bowl of an electric mixer, but they never specify to use the electric mixer, simply to “whisk.” I normally whisk ice cream custards by hand, but I went ahead and used the whisk attachment, since I figured there must be some reason the recipe said to use the mixer bowl.
***The instructions say to use a small saucepan, but I had to switch in the middle. I recommend using a three-quart sauce pan so you have room to stir the mixture.

Bake(d) Along: Root Beer Bundt Cake

On Tuesday evening I was perusing various blogs to see how the other TWD bakers’ fared with the Blueberry Crumb Cake – lots of yummy, crumby cakes out there – and I was intrigued when I saw that Megan of My Baking Adventures and Nic from Bakeologie were doing a bake-along this weekend. I found this to be particularly delightful news for the following reasons: 1) The recipe chosen was Root Beer Bundt Cake from Baked; New Frontiers in Baking, a cookbook I recently purchased and have only made one recipe from. (It is a spectacular cookbook, full of amazing-looking concoctions, but most are too rich for everyday baking.) 2) Since the recipe was a bundt cake, I would have an opportunity to use my bundt pan; another item that’s only been used once. 3) The TWD recipe this week involves coconut, which Mr. Penpen doesn’t like, so I was going to have to bake another dessert anyway. 4) I knew I’d be running a 10K race on Saturday, and in addition to eating pasta the night before, I have a rule that I can eat whatever I fancy after running a race, so this cake would be a nice treat to look forward to. Isn’t it great when so many factors culminate into something as wonderful as chocolate cake?



Since the recipe was called Root Beer Bundt Cake, I was surprised to see that it had as much cocoa powder in it as a typical chocolate cake. But as Mr. Penpen pointed out, chocolate and root beer are both great with vanilla ice cream, so I didn’t question it. The end result was a superb chocolate bundt cake: moist but not too dense and very flavorful. It has a lot of sugar, however, the recipe calls for a generous amount of salt, so the taste balances nicely. If you ever want to bake a cake for Halloween this would be a good one, since with dark cocoa and dark brown sugar, it comes out almost black. I took it outside to photograph, and thought that it would also be an excellent cake for a summer barbeque. Maybe it was just the sunny day and I wanted to barbeque.

I give this recipe a 3 for Effort and a 9 for Deliciousness, giving it an EDR of 3. Many thanks to Megan and Nic for proffering this recipe for a bake-along and getting me to used my copy of Baked. If you would like the recipe for Root Beer Bundt Cake, you may find it on Megan’s site.