Another week, another birthday cake baked
Sep. 12th, 2008 03:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaToday is the birthday of another of our housemates--this time it is my apprentice's birthday. So I packed away the rest of last week's cake into a cookie tin to free up the cake-plate for this week's cake.
Since he recently started wearing braces he's sort of limited in what he can and cannot eat.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
baronsnorri's birthday fruit cake is much too chunky for the poor apprentice to even taste. Therefore I wanted to make him something softer. Much softer. And, since the boy has a bit of a sweet tooth I decided to be different and actually follow a recipe (I'm normally inclined to drastically reduce the amount of sugar in any given recipe, if I even look at one at all!).
So I dug out my 1965 edition of the _Fannie Farmer Cookbook_ looking for inspiration. (Note to Australians: in the US "Fannie" is first and foremost a common girl's name, and second a very, very polite term for your bottom. Most folk in the US have never even heard about the definition of the term which is used here and in Ireland.)
I found an interesting sounding recipe I'd never tried called "Velvet Cake". That sounded nice and soft, so I gave it a try. The instructions, as printed in the cookbook:
********************
Velvet Cake
Butter a pan 8 by 10 inches or two 9-inch layer pans. Set the oven at 375o for layer cake pans or 350O for loaf pan.
Separate
4 eggs
Beat the whites until stiff. Beat in gradually
1/2 cup sugar
Without washing the beater, beat the yolks until thick with
1/2 cup cold water
Cream
1/2 cup butter
Beat in gradually
1 cup sugar
Add the beaten yolks.
Sift
1 1/2 cups pastry or cake flour
1/2 cup cornstartch
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
Add to butter mixture. Beat well and fold in the egg whites. Spread in the pan.
Bake about 40 minutes.
************************************
Once the cake was out of the oven, I mixed up a Cream Filling from the same cookbook:
************************************
Cream Filling
(Crème Patissière)
For layer cakes and cream puffs. Egg yolks make a rich, golden filling, but a whole egg thickens it just as well.
Scald in a double boiler
1 cup milk
Mix in a bowl
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour or 1 tablespoon cornstarch
few grains salt
Stir in the milk. Pour back into the double boiler and cook 15 minutes, stiring until the filling thickens. Add
2 egg yolks or 1 egg, slightly beaten
Cook and stir 5 minutes longer. Cool.
Flavor with
Vanilla or other flavoring.
*************************************
(I opted for the two egg yolks, since the hens have been laying.) I then melted some chocolate, added some instant coffee and mixed with enough powdered sugar to coat the top of the cake (my apprentice loves his coffee!).
Having eaten more cake batter and filling than, perhaps, I should have, I will have plenty of energy for uni work this afternoon! Any of you who can make it to the regular Ynys Fawr Social Night at the Solar this evening can try the cake there...
Since he recently started wearing braces he's sort of limited in what he can and cannot eat.
baronsnorri's birthday fruit cake is much too chunky for the poor apprentice to even taste. Therefore I wanted to make him something softer. Much softer. And, since the boy has a bit of a sweet tooth I decided to be different and actually follow a recipe (I'm normally inclined to drastically reduce the amount of sugar in any given recipe, if I even look at one at all!).So I dug out my 1965 edition of the _Fannie Farmer Cookbook_ looking for inspiration. (Note to Australians: in the US "Fannie" is first and foremost a common girl's name, and second a very, very polite term for your bottom. Most folk in the US have never even heard about the definition of the term which is used here and in Ireland.)
I found an interesting sounding recipe I'd never tried called "Velvet Cake". That sounded nice and soft, so I gave it a try. The instructions, as printed in the cookbook:
********************
Velvet Cake
Butter a pan 8 by 10 inches or two 9-inch layer pans. Set the oven at 375o for layer cake pans or 350O for loaf pan.
Separate
4 eggs
Beat the whites until stiff. Beat in gradually
1/2 cup sugar
Without washing the beater, beat the yolks until thick with
1/2 cup cold water
Cream
1/2 cup butter
Beat in gradually
1 cup sugar
Add the beaten yolks.
Sift
1 1/2 cups pastry or cake flour
1/2 cup cornstartch
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
Add to butter mixture. Beat well and fold in the egg whites. Spread in the pan.
Bake about 40 minutes.
************************************
Once the cake was out of the oven, I mixed up a Cream Filling from the same cookbook:
************************************
Cream Filling
(Crème Patissière)
For layer cakes and cream puffs. Egg yolks make a rich, golden filling, but a whole egg thickens it just as well.
Scald in a double boiler
1 cup milk
Mix in a bowl
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour or 1 tablespoon cornstarch
few grains salt
Stir in the milk. Pour back into the double boiler and cook 15 minutes, stiring until the filling thickens. Add
2 egg yolks or 1 egg, slightly beaten
Cook and stir 5 minutes longer. Cool.
Flavor with
Vanilla or other flavoring.
*************************************
(I opted for the two egg yolks, since the hens have been laying.) I then melted some chocolate, added some instant coffee and mixed with enough powdered sugar to coat the top of the cake (my apprentice loves his coffee!).
Having eaten more cake batter and filling than, perhaps, I should have, I will have plenty of energy for uni work this afternoon! Any of you who can make it to the regular Ynys Fawr Social Night at the Solar this evening can try the cake there...
