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.

A Cupcake Kind of Day

First of all,  Happy Birthday to my brother Danny (still Danny to me, even at 55!) who lives on the west coast and won't be enjoying any of my cupcakes, though I did send him a photo of a cake I'd baked and digitally imposed "Happy Birthday Danny" on it!). Hope it's been a great day for him, and that he and his wife Suzette celebrate with a terrific dinner tonight.  If I were closer, Danny, you'd be having at least a cupcake!

It's been a very busy couple of baking days, and last night I made cupcakes for friends at work.  I brought in chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting for our student assistant, Nikki, who is twenty-one today (happy birthday Nikki!). For Helen's husband Jimmy, an ardent Giants fan whose birthday today is being celebrated on Superbowl Sunday, I made devils food cupcakes with ROYAL BLUE buttercream frosting!

The cupcakes were all baked last night (with Henry's assistance) and I got up at 6:00 a.m. to take a quick shower before making the frosting.  There was a lot to do before leaving my house for the day, taking the cupcakes with me.  First I made the white buttercream for Nikki's cupcakes, and then moved on to a batch of frosting made very, very blue by Wilton's Royal Blue paste food coloring.  It seemed too light, and by the time it was just right, I'd used half the bottle of food coloring!  I decorated the cupcakes, packed them in boxes, loaded them into my Jeep and made it in to work right at the wire. I was in such a rush that I threw a couple of hot rollers into my now shorter hair and drove to work that way, ripping them out of my head about a mile from the office (a first, and hopefully a last, for me!).   I got to work exactly at 8:30 a.m., feeling as though I'd put in a full day already (with a very long day, still to go)!

I don't know what it is about cupcakes that people love so much, but I'm guessing that the little serving of sweetness in a fluted paper cup delivers quite a bit of happiness for its small size.  You look at a cupcake, and you have to think it's going to make someone's day.  It's going to say "I'm thinking about you," or "I wish you well," or "Hope you have a great birthday!"  They are like edible greeting cards. And cupcakes are usually eaten with two or more people sharing a moment, their individual desserts bringing them together in appreciation of food and friendship.

Cupcakes are great.

Cupcake Trio

You've Got to Have Friends, and Cupcakes

The challenges we all face every day would be a lot worse if we weren't able to share our burdens with friends.  Whether we're overloaded at work and an office mate offers to lighten the load, or a group of friends decide to get together after work to reconnect, it seems that friends make life's journeys a little less difficult, and a lot more friendly.  This week, I've been reminded more than once that I can rely on friends to get through a day, a week, or even a challenging life transition.  I find myself now two months into an entirely new work environment, and it's been a huge change for my life, but it is not bad.  This transition even has the potential to be very good, but I'm caught between grieving for the old and familiar while maintaining optimistic hope that what is new will one day become comfortably old and familiar as well. It just takes time.  It's not easy to make big changes in your mid-fifties, and many people simply won't.  They might say, "I'm too old to make such changes."  Sometimes, we have no choice but to take that leap of faith and hope that we've made the right decision, to trust that "everything happens for a reason" and that, though difficult, the adjustments will be worth it.  That's what I am counting on, that I am where I am supposed to be at this point in my life, that I will adapt and grow in positive ways, and that I can rise to the expectations and responsibilities I've assumed.  Tonight, I went out after work with three friends.  We went to Gaffney's in Saratoga Springs, and sat long and lingered over drinks and an assortment of tapas plates.  As friends do, we analyzed the current events in each others' lives, and when it came time to look at mine, they all said they believe that the changes that are occuring in my life will prove to be the right thing. 

In the spirit of friendship, I made cupcakes for a woman in my office who lent a much needed helping hand.  The cupcakes were a gesture of thanks for her assistance yesterday, when she volunteered to take one thing off my desk and lighten my load, just a bit.  I asked her what I could do to show my gratitude, and she said that there was nothing I could do for her, but that her young daughter loved cupcakes.  I got up early this morning and arrived at work with chocolate cupcakes frosted in buttercream.    I didn't have a mix, so as soon as I woke up I Googled "one bowl cupcakes" and was delighted to find Martha Stewart's easy (and very well-rated) recipe for chocolate cupcakes.  It was so simple.  I mixed the wet ingredients into the dry and popped the cupcakes into the oven for 20 minutes, just enough time for me to jump into the shower and out.  I didn't have a fancy box so I cut one side off a box of Cheerios and made a  make-shift tray which held a dozen cupcakes just perfectly.  From my own "quality control" evaluation, I can tell you that the cupcakes and frosting were terrific, really moist and delicious, and I hope that Lynn and her daughter think so too!

Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes (slightly adapted)

Oven 350 degrees F
Makes 18 standard cupcakes

Dry ingredients.  Mix together:
3/4 c. cocoa
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients.  Mix together and then add to dry:

2 eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 c. buttermilk (or 3/4 c. milk soured with 1 tbsp. lemon juice or vinegar - 5 minutes)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry and beat for 3 minutes. 

Line muffin cups with paper liners.  Fill 1/2 full with batter.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes, or until tops bounce back when lightly pressed. 

When cool enough to handle, remove cupcakes from pans to continue cooling on wire rack.  When completely cooled, frost with buttercream.

Buttercream Frosting

1 bar (8 tbsp.) butter, softened
1 lb. confectioners sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk plus more to thin to desired consistency

Beat butter until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla extract and mix well.  Add confectioners sugar alternately with milk.  Beat well.  If too thick, add more milk, a tablespoon at a time, until it reaches the desired spreading consistency.

Photo:  my cupcakes, with sprinkles!

Simple White Cake as a Belated Wedding Treat

My friends Sari and Holly just returned from their honeymoon in Italy after a beautiful wedding on Cape Cod.  I wanted to do something special for them, so I duplicated the flavors of their wedding cake, which was a white cake with lemon curd filling, frosted in buttercream.  My gift to them is a much smaller version of the cake from their wedding, and they loved it.  They broke open the box and had a slice immediately, and really raved about the cake, the lemon curd, and the frosting. Sari said it was even better than the cake at their wedding, and Holly said it was dense, delicious, and had a nice crumb (Holly's a great cook and baker, and for no real reason they gave me one of my favorite cookbooks, Baked).

I really enjoy Holly and Sari.  They are about the same age as my kids, and they are a beautiful couple.  Here's to many years of happiness for them, and may they always love cake!

Simple White Cake
(loosely adapted from allrecipes.com)

Prepare pans:  Butter and line bottom of 8" round pans with parchment or waxed paper.   Butter parchment paper.  Lightly dust with flour.

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
3 eggs, separated
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup buttermilk (or 3/4 cup milk with 2 teaspoons vinegar - let sit for a couple of minutes)

In large bowl of electric mixer, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry.  Set aside.

In another large bowl of electric mixer, beat sugar and butter for five minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.  Add egg  yolks, one at a time, and vanilla. 

Mix together flour and baking powder.  Add alternately with buttermilk and mix until completely incorporated.  Gently fold in egg whites, about a third at a time, until completely mixed in.  The goal is to lighten the batter, so don't overdo it.

Divide batter into 2 8" round pans and bake at 350 degrees F until done, about 30 minutes or until center springs back.  Do not over bake. Let cool in pans for 20 minutes.  Remove from pan and continue cooling on wire racks.  If you're not frosting the cake the same day, wrap cooled layers in plastic wrap.

Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 lb. confectioners sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk, plus more if necessary

Beat butter with vanilla until smooth.  Add 1/2 of the confectioners sugar and half of the milk.  Beat well, and add the rest.  Beat until smooth and creamy, adding a few more drops of milk at a time if necessary. 


This makes a great cup cake as well.