Black Forest Cake

It's the beginning of the birthday season in my research group. We used to have a clump around April (miss you Korhan and Anoop!) but now they all seem to be in February. Our fearless leader ordered a cake but I couldn't resist making one too. But since we were already expecting a full size one, I made a mini 4" cake.

I decided on German Black Forest Cake because one of the birthday gals is of German heritage and it also has alcohol which is a plus (especially for a cake to be consumed mid-day).

For the cake I used a Wacky Cake recipe:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
4 T cocoa powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t vanilla extract
1 T cider vinegar
6 T vegetable oil
1 c water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter and flour the sides of two 4" springforms and line bottom with parchment paper.
Sift flour, sugar, salt, soda, and cocoa together into a bowl. Whisk vanilla, vinegar, oil and water together in another bowl. Add to dry ingredients and stir until just mixed. Fill pans until halfway full. There will be batter left over (which is perfect for 4 cupcakes).
Bake until tooth pick inserted comes out clean (maybe about 25 minutes). Let cool completely.

Kirsch Cherries
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
3 T kirsch
1/3 cup dried cherries (I use Montmorency ones from TJ's)

In a small saucepan, dissolve sugar into water over medium high. Bring to a boil. Add dried cherries and turn heat to low. Simmer for 10 minutes then remove from heat. Stir in kirsch and let steep for 10 minutes.

Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy cream (minus 2 T if you are making ganache)
1 T kirsch
3 T powdered sugar

Whip cream to soft peaks. Add kirsch and sugar. Whip until incorporated.

Ganache
2 T heavy cream
1/4 c chopped chocolate (I used Green&Black's 70%)

Heat cream in microwave until hot (15-25 seconds). Pour over chopped chocolate. Wait a minute then mix until smooth.

Chocolate shavings:
Place a bar of chocolate in the microwave and heat until slightly warm but nowhere near melting. Scrape shavings from edge of chocolate bar with a vegetable peeler.

Assembly:
Level cakes. Put first layer down. Brush top with cherry kirsch syrup. Spread with ganache. Top with soaked cherries. Place second layer on and repeat. Frost with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

Orange Cream Roll

Today was my advisor's birthday. What better reason to bake a cake? I had been eyeing this lovely lemon roll over at Tartlette's so I finally got over my reluctance to use lots of eggs for a dessert (a lingering effect from starving chinese family during cultural revolution syndrome) and hopped to it. Except I subbed orange for lemon and agar agar for the gelatin. The cream turned out great. The cake was another story. After I carefully measured and whipped and folded, and finally slide the batter gently into the oven, I started cleaning up dishes and found that I had totally forgotten to put the butter in! I took the cake out after 10 minutes and inverted it to find something akin to a 2 by 4. I tried to roll it but the stiffness made the roll rectangular rather than a nice spiral. It was a dilemma for me (Oh!). Bake another cake or just make do with this one? Well, I thought, it only takes 10 minutes to throw together and 10 minutes to bake and I could deal with using more eggs. But this time I used a roll cake recipe from Paula Deen. It turned out beautifully and my advisor (and the rest of the group) was pretty happy.

Orange Roll Cake (adapted from Paula Deen's Jelly Roll recipe)

4 eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar
zest of 1 orange
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup cake flour, sifted
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Garnish:
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting, sifted
1 cup orange cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a jelly roll pan (cookie sheet with sides) with parchment or wax paper.

In a small bowl beat egg whites until soft peaks form and set aside. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks until light and lemony and fluffy. Gradually add the sugar, zest and vanilla, and mix well. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the sifted flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture. Stir in half of the egg whites into the yolk mixture then fold in the rest. Pour the batter into jelly roll pan and smooth out. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until the cake is golden and springs back with pushed lightly with a finger.

Meanwhile, prepare a kitchen towel by dusting it with some powdered sugar. Loosen edges of cake, invert cake onto the towel (Wow! I should really read directions better. That is so much easier than inverting the powdered sugar towel over the cake, which is what I did and ended up with a gentle cloud of powdered sugar descending over the front of my shirt). Gently peel wax paper off cake. Trim 1/4-inch of hard crust off each long side of the jelly roll cake. Begin with the narrow side and roll the cake and towel up together. Cool cake on rack, seam side down, for 10 to 15 minutes.

Once cake has cooled, gently unroll and spread cake with orange cream and re-roll. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar or cover with whipped cream.

Orange Cream (from Pierre Herme by way of Tartlette)

1 cup sugar
zest of 2 oranges
4 eggs
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 Tb agar flakes, softened in 3 Tbs hot water
1 stick butter, cut into 1 inch pieces, softened

Make a water bath by putting a saucepan of water over heat to simmer and placing a metal bowl over, without the bottom touching the water. Rub the sugar and zest with your fingers and add to the metal bowl. Whisk in the eggs and juice.
Cook the mixture over the water bath, whisking constantly until the cream reaches 180 degrees (btw - this is hard to do with my meat thermometer). Put it into a blender with the agar mix until a taste test shows no sign of agar lumps. Let the cream cool to 140. Blend in the butter until smooth. Pour into a container, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.