Happy Birthday Cake from Baking Illustrated!

Recently, my very good friend Susan Parker asked if I'd bake the cake for her mother Ruth's 80th birthday. I was very happy to say yes, and I wanted this cake to be extra special. I've met Ruth a number of times over the years, originally when my daughter Meghan and Susan's daughter Christi were immediate best friends in 3rd grade at Greenfield Elementary School. As their friendship flourished, Susan's and mine did as well. There were many special moments and events that we shared, some of my happiest memories during the girls' growing-up years. Susan was a great mom to her growing family, and is an incredible grandmother now to an ever-expanding family. I have to imagine that the blueprint for Susan's commitment and devotion to her family has its foundation in her early years, that Ruth started something that continues today not only with Susan and her siblings, but also with Susan's three daughters - Melanie, Christi, and Erika - terrific young women, married with families of their own now. (Susan and her husband Tom also have a son, Michael, who's a very involved uncle!) Mellie has a son and a daughter, Christi has five children (two sets of twins - two boys and three girls!), and Erika has three daughters. Ruth's legacy is going strong and her family is so fortunate she is able to participate in her great-grandchildren's lives, continuing to create new memories.

So, for such a special mom/grandma/great-grandmother, I wanted to create a cake that would not only be pretty but would taste as good as it looked. I turned to my Baking Illustrated cook book, such a trusted resource. I settled on the Classic White Cake, and the recipe did not disappoint in the least. Unlike a traditional white cake recipe, this one does not use whipped egg whites.  The egg whites are there, in abundance, but they are blended in gently which the editors of the cookbook explain results in a moister, more tender cake. So, it's less complicated than other recipes - basically a blending of wet and dry ingredients - none of that whipping and folding - and it's a better cake. Win win! I also made cupcakes, fearing that the cake would not be enough for the large Parker family.  Here's a photo of the cupcakes, followed by the recipe for Ruth's birthday cake:

I was so happy to hear that Ruth loved her cake, and that the family said it was delicious. Music to my ears!  Happy, happy 80th birthday, Ruth Boucher. I hope you have a wonderful year, and many more!

Love,

Meghan's Mom
(Jeannie)


CLASSIC WHITE CAKE
(very closely adapted --almost word for word-- from Baking Illustrated)
Like all B.I. recipes, this is very detailed and provides every step for a successful result.

2 1/4 cups plain cake flour
1 cup milk at room temperature
6 large egg whites at room temperature (important)
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanill extract
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still cool

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING*
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still cool
4 cups (1 pound) confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk
Pinch salt

Raspberry-Almond Filling
1/2 cup blanched almonds, toasted and chopped coarse
1/2 cup seedless raspberry filling

For the cake:  adjust an oven rack in the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Generously grease two 9-inch round cake pans and cover the pan bottoms with orunds of parchment paper or waxed paper.  Grease the parchment paper rounds and dust the cake pans with flour, tapping out the excess.

Pour the milk, egg whites, and extracts into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup and mix with a fork until blended.

Mix the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl of a standing mixer set at low speed.  Add the butter; continue beating at low speed until the mixture resembles moist crumbs with no powdery streaks remaining.

Add all but 1/2 cup of the milk mixture to the crumbs and beat at medium speed (or high speed if using a hand-held mister) for 1 1/2 minutes. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of the milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Return the mixer to medium (or high) speed and beat 20 seconds longer.

Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans; using a rubber spatula, spread the batter to the pan walls and smooth the tops. Arrange the pans at least 3 inches from the oven walls and 3 inches apart. (If your oven is small, place the pans on separate racks in staggered fashion to allow for air circulation.) Bake until a toothpick or a thin skewer inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clear, 23-25 minutes. (NOTE:  my oven took 30-35 minutes).

Let the cakes rest in the pans for 3 minutes. Loosen from the sides of the pans with a knife if necessary, and invert onto wire racks. Re-invert to additional wire racks. Let cool completely, about 1 1/2 hours.

For the frosting: Beat the butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla, milk, and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer at low speed until the sugar is moistened. Increase the speed to medium-high; beat, stopping twice to scrape down the bowl, until creamy and fluffy, about 1 1/2 minutes. Avoid over-beating or the frosting will be too soft to pipe.
*I did not use this frosting recipe for Ruth's cake. I used my own buttercream recipe that is especially good for food coloring and piping because I decorate so heavily...

For the filling: Before assembling the cake, set aside 3/4 cup of the frosting for decoration. Combine 1/2 cup of the remaining frosting with the almonds in a small bowl and spread over the first layer.  Carefully spread the jam on top and cover with the second layer.  spread the frosting over the top and sides of the cake.  Pipe the reserved frosting around the perimeter of the cake at the base and at the top. Cut the cake into slices and serve.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread (cake?!)

I had this big zucchini sitting on my kitchen island, staring me in the face.  For a few days, I looked at it and said, "I know, I'll get around to you."  It intimidated me a little bit, actually.  Then the call came -- yesterday, my friend Joanne asked me if I could bake something for an impromptu going-away/baby shower for her friend Erica.  I said "sure" and she said "no, you don't have enough time" and I said "of course I do."  After all it was for Erica, a lovely soon-to-be Mom who's been great to work with.  I promised scones and zucchini bread.  I searched the internet for zucchini bread recipes, and there are a gazillion, so I decided to go home and open up my baking textbook, the bible of the best (or wanna-be-the-best) bakers, Cooks Illustrated's beautiful book, Baking Illustrated.  It was a gift to myself a few years ago, and as much as I love the internet for instant recipe gratification, it's good to hold a good, heavy book in my hands, to set it on my island opened to a recipe, and even to brush crumbs off a page.  It's like Baking 101, where I can study a paragraph three or four times and really get it without having to scroll up or scroll down. 

Anyway, my point is that old-school is sometimes better, and you can learn an awful lot from a real book, and with this baking book you get lessons based on research in Cooks Illustrated's kitchens, as well as the history and tradition surrounding the recipe (right up my academic alley).  They take one recipe and refine it to perfection before they publish it.  If you ever get a chance to catch their show Cooks Country on PBS (often on Sunday afternoons) it's worth watching.  Christopher Kimball and his staff explain why recipes do and don't work, and they tape their show in a real Vermont country farm house.  There's just so much that is real and authentic with CI and all they do -- it's a refreshing change-of-pace from the glitzy cooking shows populating cable TV.

I found BI's recipe for zucchini bread, and I altered it a bit.  I added chocolate in the form of Hershey's cocoa powder, and even more with mini chocolate chips.  I also added a tiny bit (a teaspoon) of dried Valencia orange peel, just because, but it doesn't have to go in there.  I personally love a little hint of orange in my chocolate.  Once the zucchini was grated and drained, it didn't seem to be that large a component in the bread/cake.  But, it's in there and you can feel good about it!

Here's my recipe for Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread, adapted from Baking Illustrated:

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD
makes two loaves

Grease and flour two 9x5 loaf pans 

12 tablespoons softened butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs (OR for low-fat version, 3 egg whites and one egg, or equivalent in egg substitute - 1 c.)
3/4 c. sour milk (2 tbsp. vinegar and milk to make 3/4 c.) or buttermilk or plain yogurt
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups zucchini, grated, mixed w/ 2 tbsp. sugar, drained in colander for 30 minutes, excess moisture squeezed out (use large holes of a box grater, or shred in food processor)

3.5 cups flour
3/4 c. baking cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
(optional:  1 tablespoon fresh orange rind, grated, or 1 teaspoon dried)

1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted for 5 minutes, dry, over lowest heat setting until fragrant. 
1 cup mini chocolate chips (Regular chocolate chips are heavier and my drop to the bottom.  If you're using them, coat in flour first and then they'll suspend in the batter better.)

Beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy.  Add oil.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Add sour milk, vanilla, and zucchini.  Mix well.

In separate bowl, combine flour with cocoa, baking powder, soda, and salt. 

Mix flour mixture into butter mixture until everything is moistened and there are no dry parts visible.  Stir in walnuts and chocolate chips.

Oven 375 degrees

Spray, or grease and flour two 9x5 loaf pans.  Line bottom of pans with parchment or waxed paper (makes it easier to remove later).

Divide batter among loaf pans and bake at 375 until cake tests done - check at 40 minutes.  Cake is done when it springs back when lightly pressed in the middle, or when toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 10-15 minutes.  Turn out onto cooling rack to cool completely, and then wrap in saran wrap to keep cake moist.

Like all zucchini breads, this is made to be shared!

Enjoy!

Photo:  by me