Red Wine Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Cherry Buttercream

My husband and I fell in LOVE with South African red wines while we were there.  They are unique, bold, robust and full of flavor! Very strict US customs laws and expensive shipping make it tough for distributors to import to the States, so we have had some trouble finding good variety since we have been back.  One night, Chris brought home a bottle with a description made just for him! “A burst of intense rich coffee and chocolate aromas with ripe nuances of mulberry, plum and maraschino cherries”.  

The wine is amazing and I suggest if you like the sound of it you should run out and buy it!  The coffee is the most prominent of all the flavors but you taste the hints of chocolate and its sweetness reminds you of cherries.  After doing a little research, I discovered the wine maker now has the nickname Starbucks and that is why it is called Barista DUH?! (read here if you want to learn more).  

I immediately thought of a recent post I had read on Love and Olive Oil about a red wine chocolate cake and thought this wine would be perfect, especially since coffee brings out the flavor in chocolate.  I decided it would be the perfect birthday cake for my husband.  Since he loves cherries and chocolate together I wanted to do it with a cherry buttercream.  Similar to Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil, I decided to use my-go to chocolate cake recipe and just swap the milk for the wine.  

Since this cake is so intense, it would also be lovely as a bundt cake (or mini individual bundt cakes), which make a great, quick dessert for a dinner with friends.  If serving this as a bundt cake, simply serve with powdered sugar or a dollop of whip cream.  If you are married to someone who loves cherry you can drizzle it with a cherry compote as well :)

Chocolate Wine Cake (inspired by Love and Olive Oil)

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups dry red wine (I would use a wine you like to drink because the wine does not cook off entirely)

Directions: 

1. Grease three 6 inch pans (this also can be made into a two-layer 8 inch cake) and line them with parchment paper.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. In the bowl of your mixer, beat the butter with the sugar at medium-high speed until fluffy, 4 minutes. 
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until incorporated. Add the vanilla and beat for 2 minutes longer. 
5. On a low speed (stir if you have), work in two batches and alternately fold in the dry ingredients and the wine, until just incorporated.
6. Separate your batter evenly into the pans.
7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until cake springs back when lightly touched in center.
8. Let cool 10 minutes and then flip your cakes onto parchment paper to cool
9. To assemble your cake start with leveling your layers.  Place each layer on a cake stand and cut off the domed top of the cake with a serrated knife. 
10. Next place the first layer (flat side down) on your cake stand and spread with a layer of the cherry buttercream (about 1/4 cup - it is really personal preference).  
11. Place your second layer on top of the first and spread with the a layer of the cherry buttercream.  
12. Next place your third and last layer on top with the flat side up
13. Cover the entire cake with a thin layer of your chocolate buttercream and place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes (this is what is called the crumb coat, it does not have to be perfect it just holds in the crumbs that form from leveling the cake and creates a base to cover the cake.
14. After the 20 minutes are finished you finish frosting your cake with your desired look

(Alternatives: 10 inch Bundt pan and cook for 40-50 mins or 8 mini bundt cakes cook for 30 mins).

Chocolate and Cherry Swiss Buttercream

4 large egg whites

1 cup of sugar

2 1/2 sticks of butter (20 tablespoons)

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 oz melted bittersweet chocolate

1/4 cup cherry compote (or cherry jam if you do not want to make)

Directions

1. Whisk egg whites and sugar together in a large glass bowl over a pot of simmering water.
2. Whisk occasionally until you cannot feel the sugar granules when you rub the mixture between your fingers.  
3. Transfer the mixture into the your mixer and whip until it turns white and about doubles in size (10 minutes).  Make sure no water gets into the egg whites!
4. Add the vanilla
5. Turn the mixer down slightly and add the butter in small pieces on a medium to high speed, work quickly and continue to whip.  Once all the butter is in turn the speed up to high and continue to whip until it comes together.  THe mixture will curdle first but do not stop, continue to whip and I promise it will come together (could take up to 10 minutes)!
6. Once it is all together put 1/2 cup of the buttercream in another bowl and combine it with the cherry jam.  Make sure to fold the cherry and the buttercream together until the cherry is fully incorporated (Note: you will probably have some left over).  
7. Add the 2 oz of melted and cooled chocolate into the remainder of the buttercream and blend until the chocolate is fully incorporated. 

Cherry Compote (fabulous for ice cream!)

10oz bag of frozen cherries

1/4 cup of sugar

1/2 tbs of cornstarch

1/3 cup of water

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together in a small saucepan.  
2. On medium heat bring them to a boil.
3. Let it boil for 5 minutes until slightly thickened
4. You can strain out the cherries but I prefer to mash them with the back of the spoon as it is boiling.

Fondant Baby Zoo Animals

I am very excited to show you the cakes I made for a birthday party yesterday! A college friend asked me to do cakes for her twin daughters' and nephew's 2nd birthday. The theme was baby animals and she sent this link over for guidance. I was thrilled to make these, especially since we had just seen all of these animals in person in Africa! I decided to make these extra special by doing them in 3-D as well. They were so much fun to Kreate!

Hanging out before they go on the cake :)

Strawberry Shortcake!

My youngest niece, Monica, celebrated her 3rd Birthday last weekend with a Strawbery Shortcake themed party! After the penguin, I decided I wanted to try a small 3d character.  She wasn't perfect and I learned a lot about making characters.  I was proud with my first try and happy that I can now offer this level of detail to others!  My sister made some fabulous cupcakes and an adorable cake for the Strawberry Shortcake to go on.  I also sent her strawberry cake pops, but she made the rest!  

My fabulous website designer and photographer, Raquel, designed the cupcake flags for the party.  She has started her own business you can see all of her wonderful work on her website Raquel Bianca!

Have a great weekend!

Brown Butter Pecan Cake and the Penguin

  In an earlier blog I told you about a client who requested a butter pecan cake with a caramel buttercream frosting (yummy!) for her daughter’s first birthday. To make things even more fun, she wanted the cake covered in an ice blue fondant with a giant penguin on top! Her daughter LOVES big, stuffed animals and penguins are her favorite so it made the perfect centerpiece. This was one of the most challenging projects I’ve worked on, as it was my first butter pecan cake and I’m just starting to learn how to make 3D characters.

  I began by researching butter pecan cakes in my cookbooks and online, but was very disappointed by the lack of info. Even Southern Living had the same recipe as Allrecipes.com. Reviewers on All Recipes criticized the recipe for creating a cake that was dry and heavy. To fix this problem, some bakers reduced the flour while others added sour cream. I decided to reduce the flour and add cornstarch to make a cake flour (see note below) to create a lighter cake. I also used some sour cream to add moistness.

  The recipe instructed you to toast the pecans with the butter in a pan. I am not sure if my pan was too small but I ended up burning the pecans.  I decided to take a few extra steps and do it all separately.  I toasted the pecans in the oven first and then browned the butter in a pan by itself to give it a nutty flavor. Next, I mixed the butter with the pecans off the heat.  This was a few more steps but it worked perfectly and I think the brown butter added some extra depth in flavor.  The end result was great and I received a happy approval from a real Southerner!  

     This cake would be perfect for a dinner party if it was made into a simple bundt cake and drizzled with caramel (you may see this on the holiday 2012 menu :).  Since this was a birthday party, it was made into a layer cake with a rich caramel buttercream.  I simply added the caramel sauce to my go-to swiss buttercream was thrilled with the fabulous results!  

     Creating the penguin was great fun! The internet is full of instructions for building small penguins but I was on my own building the perfect large penguin. My first try was with all fondant, but the base was too large and the body kept shrinking lower until it looked like a VERY fat penguin:) I decided to next try making her out of Rice Krispies, as I had successfully done for my Thomas the Train topper. I recently learned a trick from a TV cake show suggesting you cover the Rice Krispies with buttercream BEFORE putting the fondant on to make it smoother. It definitely worked! It was slightly harder to handle but came out smoother than the truck had. After I figured out her body, the rest was fairly simple and I loved the way she came out:)

Brown Butter Pecan Cake (adapted from All Recipes)

1 1/4 cups butter

2 cups chopped pecans

2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/4 cup corn starch

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 cup milk

1/4 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. Grease two 8 or 9 inch round pans and line them with parchment paper.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spread pecans on a parchment lined baking sheet and toast the pecans for 10 minutes, let cool and chop finely in food processor. 
3. Melt 1/4 cup butter in heavy skillet over medium heat and cook until it starts turning a light brown color and spelling nutty.  Watch closely because the butter can burn fast.  Add the pecans to the butter and fold them together.  Make sure the pecans are fully coated with butter
4. Sift flour with baking powder and salt into a bowl. 
5. Cream the remaining butter (1 cup) with the sugar in your mixer with the paddle attachment.  Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy (3-5 mins).
6. At medium speed blend in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. 
7. At low speed add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk and vanilla extract.  
8. Stir in the buttered pecans and make sure to fully incorporate.
9. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until cake springs back when lightly touched in center.
10. Let cool 10 minutes and then flip your cakes onto parchment paper to cool
11. To assemble your cake start with leveling your layers.  Place each layer on a cake stand and cut off the domed top of the cake with a serrated knife. (I recently bought these rings and they are my life saver).  
12. Next place the first layer (flat side down) on your cake stand and fill with a layer of buttercream (about 1/4 cup - it is really personal preference).  
13. Next place your second layer on top with the flat side up
14. Cover the entire cake with a thin layer of your buttercream and place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes (this is what is called the crumb coat, it does not have to be perfect it just holds in the crumbs that form from leveling the cake and creates a base to cover the cake.
15. After the 20 minutes are finished you finish frosting your cake with your desired look

Caramel Swiss Buttercream

4 large egg whites

1 cup of sugar

2 1/2 sticks of butter (20 tablespoons)

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup caramel sauce

1. Whisk egg whites and sugar together in a large glass bowl over a pot of simmering water.
2. Whisk occasionally until you cannot feel the sugar granules when you rub the mixture between your fingers.  
3. Transfer the mixture into the your mixer and whip until it turns white and about doubles in size (10 minutes).  Make sure no water gets into the egg whites!
4. Add the vanilla
5. Turn the mixer down slightly and add the butter in small pieces on a medium to high speed, work quickly and continue to whip.  Once all the butter is in turn the speed up to high and continue to whip until it comes together.  THe mixture will curdle first but do not stop, continue to whip and I promise it will come together (could take up to 10 minutes)!
6. Once it is all together, add the caramel and blend until fully incorporated.  

Note:

To make cake flour you can replace two tablespoons of flour with cornstarch for every cup of flour. 

Adventures with Caramel

I was asked to make a Butter Pecan Cake with a Caramel Buttercream. I have never made either before so they were a fun project!  For now I am going to talk about my caramel making experiment and I will have a follow-up post about the cake because it also involved a penguin on top it :) 

I have made toffee and brittle before (and have sold it on my menu), but I have never made just caramel.  I knew I needed a sauce since it would have to blend with the buttercream.  From my experience when working with sugar you need a good candy thermometer, a careful eye and gloves.  I learned a lot from David Lebovitz 's  post about "How to Make the Perfect Caramel" (he posts a few more precautions). 

When making a sauce there are a couple of decisions to make: Dry vs. Wet and Butter vs. Heavy Cream, and Light Amber or Dark Amber (see note)

From David Lebovitz and a few other resources, I learned that there is a wet caramel (made with water) and a dry caramel (where sugar is cooked by itself and liquefies).  David recommended the dry caramel but other resources said the wet was easier (it did not burn as fast).  

When making a sauce you need to add in butter or heavy cream.  As I searched to find what the difference was I could not really find an answer.  I found that all recipes were different some just used heavy cream and some just used butter and some used both.  

So I decided to start with the wet caramel and just the heavy cream. What I did not like about the wet version was how the sugar stuck to the side of the pot and it seemed to take a very long time to reach the amber color I was looking for.  The result with just the heavy cream tasted more like a chewy candy to me and they actually hardened like a chew candy (I ended up making candies with a sprinkle of kosher salt).   

On my second trial I went with the dry caramel and both butter and sugar.  Working with the dry  can be tricky but for some reason I liked it better, it turned to the amber color faster and you needed less ingredients. You have to work fast but not too fast and keep the heat on low.  This , combined with the butter and the heavy cream resulted in a delicious rich and creamy sauce.  I added the sauce to my butter   cream, but it would also be super yummy over ice cream, as a filler for a cookie, or drizzled over a bundt cake :)

The sugar is starting to melt

The sugar has fully melted and it is time to add the butter

Once the butter is melted add the cream

Make sure to strain!

Carmel Sauce - adapted from Simple Recipes

1 cup sugar

6 Tbs Butter

1/2 Cup Whipping Cream

1. Get all your ingredients ready, because if you do not work fast your sugar will burn.

2. Heat sugar on a medium heat in a heavy-bottomed 2-quart or 3-quart saucepan. As the sugar begins to melt, stir fast (but not too fast because the sugar can lump) with a wooden spoon.  The sugar will start to turn a light amber color make sure to move the sugar around to prevent it from burning.  

3. If your sugar does begin to lump you can lower the heat to even out the melting and continue to stir (any left over chunks can be strained at the end).  

4. As soon as all the sugar is melted (you reach your desired amber color), immediately add the butter to the pan. Whisk until the butter has melted.

5. Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat.  Then slowly add the cream to the pan and continue to whisk to incorporate.

6. The cream will foam up but whisk until caramel sauce is smooth. 

7. Let cool in the pan for a couple minutes, then strain it into a glass mason jar and let sit to cool to room temperature. (Remember to use pot holders when handling the jar filled with hot caramel sauce.) Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

This will make between 8-10oz of caramel

Note:

The darker the color the more depth of flavor the caramel will have. Some people like that but some prefer a more mellow flavor it is all personal preference.  Since it takes longer for the sugar to liquify, the color is easier to control with a wet caramel, dry caramel is fairly dark which may influence your decision on where you want to start.  

January Treats!

I wanted to share some fun projects that I worked on January before I left for my trip!

Disney Cars Cakes from a little boy who turned 5 and had the same birhtday as his Grandfather

 Snoopy and Friends Cake Pops!

Toy Story Cupcakes for a little boy Max who turned 3!

Robot Cake Pops that I did for a fabulous party that Little Miss Party Planner hosted (check out the rest of the party treats here)

Hope you are having a great week!

Super bowl

Yayy for the Giants!  My husband is a huge Giants fan so he was really excited about the win last night! He wanted to be able to actually watch the game so we had a few of his close friends over to watch.  I was instructed NOT to go crazy with food so I tried to just keep it simple :)  

On the menu was:

Chips and salsa 

Chunky guacamole 

Truffle quesadillas

Ginger and garlic turkey meatballs 

Roasted Buttermilk Chicken drumbsticks (thanks Smitten Kitchen - I substituted her paprika for old bay)

I wanted to share my guacamole and quesadilla recipes

Guacamole: The guys thought this tasted lighter than normal guacs

2 avocados

10-15 grape or cherry tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic 

1/2 large onion

lemon juice

1 tsp salt (approximate - I always do it to taste)

1. Dice the onion into pieces that are about 1/8 of an inch

2. Mince the garlic

3. Cut the tomatoes in quarters

4. Halve and pit the avocado, then make a cross hatch using your knife (see photo below) and be careful not to cut through the skin.  

5. Scoop out the flesh into a bowl squeeze and toss with lemon juice.

6. Stir in the tomatoes, garlic, onion and salt (taste it and add more salt if needed).

Truffle Quesadillas - These have a story :)

We were really upset when our staple Mexican restaurant Zocolo left a few years ago and we could not find a replacement.  This past winter Toloache opened actually right next door to where Zocolo was. We were excited when we went in to hear that it was the same chef from Zocolo.  The food was just as good if not better than Zocolo (the only complaint from my husband is the portions shrank a little :)  Anyhow our favorite is their truffle quesadilla which is very simple so I try and recreate a version of my own at home.  

Serving 2 Quesadillas:

2 Medium Flour Tortillas 

1 1/2 cups shredded chedder and manchego cheese

1 tsp truffle oil

1. Preheat the oven to 400

2. Put each both tortillas flat on a baking sheet lined with tinfoil (these are not sandwiched like regular quesadillas)

3. Spread 3/4 cup of shredded cheese on each tortilla 

4. Bake for 5 mins and then put your brolier on low for 1 minute

5. Sprinkle each tortilla with 1/2 tsp truffle oil

6. Cut in quarters and enjoy

                                                                                                                                                                 

PS  I am trying to add some diversity to my blog- let me know what you think!