Cakes & Icing

We're back from San Antonio & the cakes are made. Christopher and Ethan were there as my quality control agents to check things out in between batches. There were 12 cakes in all and a total of 30 recipes used .(Not counting the one I had to make twice because the first time I forgot to put the sugar in. Yeah, it had been a long day. Ethan, in his role as quality control agent actually caught it while licking the bowl, not me.) So today you get the recipes for Red velvet cake (my own recipe), Devils food cake (Susan G. Purdy), Chocolate Italian buttercream icing, Vanilla Italian buttercream icing, Cream cheese icing, Raspberry filling, Marshmallow fondant and a few tips to bake perfectly even cakes and a great tip for spot cleaning carpets (don’t ask). Here you go…


Firstly, the carpet cleaning bit. Red food coloring and beets are not your friends if you have beige carpets and two boys with the combined destructive force of hurricane Katrina. However, some things can be remedied. If you happen to have spots on your carpet for one reason or another-there are usually several reasons around here-here’s a quick fix that works as well as any other method I’ve tried short of renting a professional machine without all the elbow grease. Spray a little Fantastic on the spot. It’s an all-purpose cleaner usually by the Windex. You can spot test your carpet if you’re nervous, but we live in an apartment and it’s not like they use the most expensive brand and it fared well. Once you’ve sprayed it, vacuum over it slowly letting the spin bristles on your vacuum hover over the stain. That’s it, you’re done. You can just go around spraying spots before you do your regular vacuuming and then hover a little over the bad spots and your carpet will never have spots and you won’t have to get down on your knees to scrub. Yay for Ethan and his drive to make me a better house keeper.
On to cakes…
After seeing bits and pieces of the process and all the ingredients I went through…

Jon said “Next time I won’t question why the price of wedding cakes is so high.” They all turned out great. I didn’t even have to level any of them. Yay me!
The secret to level cakes is pretty simple. First, reduce your cooking temperature and cook it a little longer at the lower temp. I baked all of mine at 325 instead of the usual 350.
Second, use baking strips.

You soak them in water and pin them around the cake pan (no plastic heads on the pins!!) and they make it bake more evenly. I roll mine up and stuff them in a mug & fill it with water to soak while I get the cake ready. You want them soaked through but not dripping so when you go to use them just run your fingers down the sides to get the drippage off.

Third, if you’re baking a cake that is larger than 12” you really should use a heating core or by the time the middle is done the sides will be crusty and hard. It’s just a little metal cylinder that you grease & put in the middle of the cake and fill with batter. It heats up just like the sides so it’s cooking from the middle and the edges at the same time.

When it’s done cooking you just pop the little piece out of the cylinder and it will fit perfectly in the little hole in the cake. Once it’s iced, no one will know the difference.

Okay, Here’s the recipes. I used ounce/grams when I was doing it because that’s how I bake, but I converted it to cups for you so let’s hope I got it right shall we. Just in case you’re wondering-because Jon already mentioned it-the buttermilk measurement is right. One cup of it weighs 9oz not 8oz because it’s super thick & heavy & just trust me okay.

*A note-or 12-about red velvet cake:*
The recipe calls for 1 oz red food coloring but it is totally optional. I wouldn’t even put it in if this weren’t for a wedding. It’s purely aesthetic and some people are highly allergic to red food coloring. The beets give it a reddish color but not the oh-my-that’s-red look that food coloring does. No, the beets don’t make the cake taste like beets. Even my pickiest eater-Jon-agrees on this point. It does give the cake a distinct and rather delicious flavor and acts kind of like applesauce to make the cake really moist. You can use fresh by peeling & cooking them yourself and the red will be deeper, but let’s face it, I wasn’t about to add peeling and boiling 20 some odd pounds of beets to my to-do list. I will warn you, the smell of the beet juice being reduced is unpleasant to say the least. All that having been said, if you decide to use the food coloring use a gel food coloring that says ‘no taste red’ or you’ll get a funky aftertaste using that much. Also, make sure you’re using whole milk buttermilk not that nasty skim stuff. (Okay, okay. Maybe that’s just my preference.)
Red Velvet Cake
1 1/4 c 10 oz vegetable oil
1 c 9 oz whole buttermilk
2 Lg Eggs
1 Oz red food coloring
2 14.5oz 1 lb 1 3/4 oz beets (canned)
1 T white vinegar
1 t vanilla
4 1/8 c 525 g All purpose flour
1 3/4 c 420 g sugar
1 t baking soda
1 T Salt
2 Heaping T cocoa powder
1/2 C Beet juice,(that's been reduced by ½)

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line your pan with parchment paper & give it a spray with cake spray. (Like Pam only with flour added). Drain beets & put juice in a saucepan to boil down to 1/2 c and set aside to cool. In food processor, puree beets until completely smooth. Then add oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, vanilla, sugar, salt, reduced beet juice & cocoa powder to your food processer & let ‘er rip. Sift dry ingredients into a stand mixer bowl. Slowly fold in liquid ingredients until everything is combined. If you have a tiny food processor, you can just mix the wet ingredients plus the sugar in your stand mixer & sift the dry ingredients in. When you add the buttermilk it will look curdled

That’s fine, it goes away. See how pretty.

Pour into prepared pans & bake until toothpick comes out clean (I baked really big cakes, so I couldn’t say how long a regular one would take. The 16” cake takes 2 hours). Cool 10-15 min in pan then transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely before leveling, splitting and icing (with cream cheese icing unless you’re crazy).


Cream cheese Icing
16 Oz soft cream cheese
1/2 C soft butter
1 t Flavoring (I use almond)
2 C
powdered sugar (measured & then sifted)

Beat the cream cheese & butter until completely smooth. Add the remaining ingredients & beat again until completely smooth. Ices one red velvet cake recipe.


Raspberry Filling
12 Oz raspberries (fresh/frozen)
1 T lemon juice
1 T Cornstarch
1/4 C Sugar

Puree the raspberries & push through a fine mesh strainer into a saucepan. To the puree, add the remaining ingredients & whisk till smooth. Cook till thick & bubbly. Cool in plastic completely before using. You don’t have to strain it, but no one really likes raspberry seeds in their teeth do they?



Dump & Blend Devils Food Cake makes 5 cups of batter
9.5 oz/270g/2.25 c Flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 c sifted natural cocoa (not Dutch)
1/2 c Butter
10.5 oz/300g/1.5 c Sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
1 tsp Vanilla
1.5 c/13.5oz Buttermilk

All ingredients at room temperature. Beat butter till soft, then add ingredients as listed, one at a time until blended: sugar, eggs, vanilla, dry ingredients, milk. Beat on low (#2 if you have a KitchenAid) for 60 seconds then scrape down the sides & beat on high (#8 if you have a KitchenAid) until batter is light & fluffy. Scrape down bowl & pour into pan & bake at 350 degrees. (30-35 min bakes one recipe.)


Italian Buttercream
Ingredients

Makes 4 1/2 cups.

2/3 c water
1 1/4 C sugar
5 Large egg whites
Pinch cream of tartar
1 1/2 c unsalted butter, chilled (you can add an additional 1/2c if you want, whatever your preference)
1 T pure vanilla extract
1 pinch salt

Directions
In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring sugar and 2/3 cup water to a boil. Continue boiling until syrup reaches 238 degrees on a candy thermometer (soft-ball stage). Beat egg whites with a whisk attachment on low speed until foamy then add the cream of tartar and beat on medium-high speed until stiff but not dry; do not overbeat. With mixer running, add syrup to whites in a stream, beating on high speed until no longer steaming. I let it mix on high until I can touch the outside of the bowl without discomfort. Add butter bit by bit, beating until spreadable, 3 to 5 minutes. Don't go overboard and add too much at once or it will flip out of the bowl & your dog (or 3-year-old) will have a wonderful time with all your wasted work. Beat in vanilla and salt once all the butter is added. If icing curdles, keep beating until it smooths out (it will). If it’s too soft/runny, stick it in the fridge for 30 min or so & beat it again. There is no buttercream problem I’ve ever come across that cannot be fixed with one or both of these two methods.

To make it chocolate: Melt 12 oz of semi-sweet chocolate in the microwave or over a double boiler. Let it cool off until it’s not hot to touch with your fingers & slowly beat into the vanilla recipe.

Marshmallow fondant makes 3 lbs
16 ounces white mini-marshmallows (use a good quality brand)
2 to 5 tablespoons water
2 pounds icing sugar (please use C&H Cane Powdered Sugar for the best results)
1/2 cup Crisco shortening (you will be digging into it so place in a very easily accessed bowl)

Melt marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in a microwave or double boiler: Put the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, open microwave and stir, back in microwave for 30 seconds more, open microwave and stir again, and continue doing this until melted. It usually takes about 2 1/2 minutes total. Grease your stand mixer with Crisco & dump in the marshmallows. Pour the powdered sugar on top and, using the dough hook, knead it till smooth. Let it sit, double-wrapped overnight. Prepare the fondant for storing by coating it with a good layer of Crisco shortening, wrap in a plastic-type wrap product and then put it in a re-sealable or Ziploc bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible. It can sit on the counter for ages, but if you’re worried you can google it and check.

If you want/need to mix it by hand, you Place 3/4 of the powdered sugar on the top of the melted marshmallow mix in the bowl you melted it in. Now grease your hands GENEROUSLY (palms, backs, and in between fingers), then heavily grease the counter you will be using and dump the bowl of marshmallow/sugar mixture in the middle. Knead the fondant. Add the rest of the powdered sugar and knead some more. Re-grease your hands and counter when the fondant starts sticking. Knead it until you have a firm, smooth elastic ball so that it will stretch without tearing when you apply it to the cake.