From Gourmet via epicurious

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Dark-Gingerbread-Pear-Cake-350222#ixzz2l7u2wfPF

Posted by Angela under Cake, Christmas foods, Dessert

This is a slightly modified version of Teddie’s Apple Cake from The Essential New York Times Cookbook via epicurious

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Teddies-Apple-Cake-362089#ixzz2l7KTVDmI

Posted by Angela under Breads & rolls, Breakfast, Cake, Christmas foods, Dessert

Pop asked for this for his birthday. I took parts from some different recipes so we ended up with the right cake. Mostly it is from a site called makinglifedelicious.com

The cake has a few parts. The cake, rum syrup, a chocolate pastry cream layer, a vanilla pastry cream layer, a ricotta layer, and a whipped cream frosting.

Ingredients:

Italian Sponge Cake:
5 egg yolks
5 egg whites
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups cake flour, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh lemon rind

Rum Syrup:
1/4 cup light or dark rum
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Italian Pastry Cream Pasticciera Cream:
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups whole milk
large pinch of kosher salt
1 tablespoon butter

Chocolate Pasticciera Cream:
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups whole milk
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
large pinch of kosher salt
1 tablespoon butter

Cannoli Cream:
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup confectionary sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Stabilized Whip Cream:
3 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons cold water
1 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 tablespoons granulated sugar

For Decoration:
1 cup toasted sliced almonds

MAKE THE PASTRY CREAMS
The order of these steps is very important.
1. Whisk together 3 egg yolks with 1/2 cup of the whole milk.
2. Sift 3 tablespoons of flour into the egg mixture and whisk to combine taking care to eliminate any lumps.
3. Add 3 tablespoons of sugar and a large pinch of kosher salt into the mixture and stir to combine. 4. Scald (aka bring just to a boil and then cut the heat) 1 1/2 cups of whole milk in a small saucepan.
5. While whisking continuously, add the scalded milk into the egg mixture.
6. Pour all this back into the pan and bring slowly bring to a low simmer, whisking the whole time. 7. Whisk while simmering for 2 minutes.
8.Remove from the heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter.
9. Transfer to a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap that touches the surface of the liquid (to avoid a skin) and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

The process for the chocolate cream is the same, except that I used 1/4 cup of
sugar and added 2 ounces of finely chopped unsweetened chocolate with the vanilla and the unsalted butter at the end.

NOTE: Both pastry creams are not particularly sweet, but have no fear. Once they
are combined with the sweet cake soaked in rum syrup, their flavors balance nicely.

MAKE THE CONNOLI CREAM LAYER
1. Beat together (using the whip attachment): 1 cup of ricotta cheese, 1/2 tsp. of vanilla, and 1/2 cup confectionary sugar
2. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use as a filling between cake layers.

MAKE THE RUM SYRUP
Mix together the water, sugar, and rum in a small pot. Bring to a boil, and stir
until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and cool before using.

MAKE THE ITALIAN SPONGE CAKE
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Butter two 8-inch cake pans then line the bottom of each with parchment. Butter again and then flour the entire interior.

Note: Its totally worth it to go through all these steps. Your cake will never stick. Set aside.

Place egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until lemon colored. They will be quite thick.

Add the vanilla

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold into the egg yolk mixture.

Sift flour over that and continue to fold, very gently, until just incorporated.

Pour cake batter into prepared pans and bake in preheated oven for 22-24 minutes (NOT the 4o minutes in the original recipe], or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove cakes from oven and turn out of pans onto wire racks to cool completely.

MAKE THE STABILIZED WHIPPED CREAM
Soak plain gelatin in cold water for 5 minutes. Dissolve by placing it in a container over a small pot of simmering water (or in the microwave on low), stir until dissolved. Set aside to cool before using.

In a large well chilled bowl, with well chilled beaters, beat cream with electric mixer. Just before it becomes soft and billowy, slowly add the sugar and vanilla to the whipped cream at the sides of the bowl, continue to whip as you do. Whip the cream until barely stiff.

Add melted and cooled gelatin all at once to cream during whipping. Stop whipping when cream forms soft peaks. Finish beating with whisk to adjust consistency to stiff peaks.

Use or serve immediately or cover and refrigerate until needed. If peaks have softened during refrigeration, re-whip by hand using a whisk.

ASSEMBLE THE CAKE
Beware the weight of all that cream and cake can make the vanilla pastry cream start to squeeze out of the sides of the cake.
Place an 8-inch cake ring over the finished cake and then put the cake in the freezer 20 minutes to get a hold of itself.
If you have a cake ring or an 8-inch springform pan, I recommend assembling the cake within the ring. Alternatively, you could refrigerate the cake for 30-40 minutes halfway through the assembly process to allow the pastry cream to firm up again.

Ideally, this is how the assembly should go:

Slice sponge cakes in half (horizontally) to form two layers. Using a long, thin bladed knife, cut/split each layer in half lengthwise making four thin layers (each of my 4 layers was about 1/2-inch thick.

Place bottom sponge layer on platter cut side up, sprinkle/brush with about 1/4 of
the rum (be careful not to get the cake too wet, or layers will become soggy).

Spread a layer of vanilla pastry cream on the first sponge layer.

Top the vanilla cream layer with another layer of sponge cake, cut side up.

Sprinkle with another 1/4 of the rum syrup.

Spread a layer of stabilized whipped cream on the second sponge layer.

Top the whipped cream layer with another layer of sponge cake, cut side up, sprinkle with another 1/4 of the syrup.

Note: You may want to refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes at this point…or live dangerously and press on.

Spread a layer of chocolate pastry cream on the third sponge layer.

Sprinkle the remaining rum on the cut side of the last layer of sponge.

Top the chocolate layer with the last layer of sponge cake, right side up (aka cut,rum syrup soaked side down)

Frost the top sponge cake layer and sides of cake with stabilized whipped cream, and if desired, decorate top of cake by piping rosettes using whipped cream and cover sides of cake with sliced almonds, or decorate as desired. Place cake in refrigerator at least 2 hours before serving.

Store any uneaten cake in the refrigerator. The slice that I ate the second day was
even more moist than the first day.

Posted by Nina under Birthday, Cake, Dessert

yield: WILL FROST 1-9 INCH ROUND LAYER CAKE OR 24 CUPCAKES

Posted by Nina under Cake, Dessert, Mom's classics

I used this recipes to make cupcakes for Carla’s cupcake party this year and it worked perfectly. I only cooled the cakes for an hour and refrigerated the glaze for an hour and then everything together for an hour because there is just not enough time in the day to do what they want. It still worked just fine.

Published March 1, 2011.   From Cook’s Illustrated.

Serves 8 to 10

Chill the assembled cake for at least 3 hours to make it easy to cut and serve.

Ingredients

Instructions

1. For the Pastry Cream: Heat half-and-half in medium saucepan over medium heat until just simmering. Meanwhile, whisk yolks, sugar, and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Add flour to yolk mixture and whisk until incorporated. Remove half-and-half from heat and, whisking constantly, slowly add ½ cup to yolk mixture to temper. Whisking constantly, return tempered yolk mixture to half-and-half in saucepan.
2. Return saucepan to medium heat and cook, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens slightly, about 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to simmer, whisking constantly, 8 minutes.
3. Increase heat to medium and cook, whisking vigorously, until bubbles burst on surface, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat; whisk in butter and vanilla until butter is melted and incorporated. Strain pastry cream through fine-mesh strainer set over medium bowl. Press lightly greased parchment paper directly on surface and refrigerate until set, at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours.
4. For the Cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray and line with parchment. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. Heat milk and butter in small saucepan over low heat until butter is melted. Remove from heat, add vanilla, and cover to keep warm.
5. In stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip eggs and sugar at high speed until light and airy, about 5 minutes. Remove mixer bowl from stand. Add hot milk mixture and whisk by hand until incorporated. Add dry ingredients and whisk until incorporated.
6. Working quickly, divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake until tops are light brown and toothpick inserted in center of cakes comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes.
7. Transfer cakes to wire rack and cool -completely in pan, about 2 hours. Run small plastic knife around edge of pans, then invert cakes onto wire rack. Carefully remove parchment, then reinvert cakes.
8. To Assemble: Place one cake round on large plate. Whisk pastry cream briefly, then spoon onto center of cake. Using offset spatula, spread evenly to cake edge. Place second layer on pastry cream, bottom side up, making sure layers line up properly. Press lightly on top of cake to level. Refrigerate cake while preparing glaze.
9. For the Glaze: Bring cream and corn syrup to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Whisk gently until smooth, 30 seconds. Let stand, whisking occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 5 minutes.
10. Pour glaze onto center of cake. Use offset spatula to spread glaze to edge of cake, letting excess drip decoratively down sides. Chill finished cake 3 hours before slicing. Cake may be made up to 24 hours before serving.

Posted by Angela under Cake, Dessert