The Best Ever Molten Chocolate Cake Ever – In Less Then 2 minutes (Recipe)

I’ll get straight to it – it’s Valentines day.  Some if you are going to be adventurous and attempt to make your loved one a fancy dinner at home.  Some of you are going to be spending the evening alone eating take-out and watching porn.  Whatever, chances are the thought of making anything tasty for dessert is frightening, too much work, or not worth it.  Well, have I got a recipe for you!

Molten Chocolate Cake.  From scratch.  Made with crap you probably already have in your house right now.  In under 2 minutes.  In the MICROWAVE.  That’s right, the microwave.  Sounds like a stoner’s delight, but trust me, this cake is restaurant quality, and once you make this you will never need another recipe to get a quick chocolate fix again.

Molten Chocolate Cake (makes 1 serving, only make one at a time)

3 tbsp. flour

3 tbsp. packed brown sugar

3 tbsp. coco powder (unsweetened)

3 tbsp. oil

3 tbsp. water

Pinch of salt

1 piece of chocolate (milk, bittersweet, white, whatever.)

Easy to remember - 3 tablespoons of everything

Throw all ingredients in a bowl except the piece of chocolate and mix with a spoon until smooth.

Pour into a microwave ramekin (or a coffee mug if you don’t have one).  Tap the ramekin on the table to settle the batter and smooth out the top.  Microwave on high for 1 minute 30 seconds.  DO NOT OVER-NUKE.  You’ll know it when you smell it.

1 minute 30 seconds later!

Your ramekin will be HOT so use mitts to take it out.  Break your chocolate into pieces and immediately stuff it in the center of your cake.   The heat of the cake will melt your chocolate.

Melty Chocolate

Then get all fancy schmancy and dust with some powdered sugar and garnish with some whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or some chocolate dipped strawberries (yeah, I really just had these “laying around”).

Nom Nom

Voila!  Happy Valentines Day!

Edited:  Yeah, originally posted with some stupid spelling errors that I hope I fixed.  That’s what I get for rushing

A Funny Thing Happened on a Cake Delivery Today…

(Jen’s note: This one has some naughty and crass words in it in my attempt to use humor and sarcasm relating a stressful situation. It’s how I deal with stuff in real life and pretty close to how I talk.  I hope you forgive me.)

I had this small cake to deliver Saturday at about 5pm.

Devil's Food Cake, dark chocolate buttercream filling, dark chocolate ganache, fleur de sel, sugar lotus flowers

As I’m putting it in my car I realized the floorboard of the passenger side had smutz on the rug because (of course) I forgot to get the van cleaned earlier. Being super picky about making sure nothing nasty gets on my cake, I went against my better judgment and put the cake on the passenger seat. It’s only a little cake, I told myself, it’ll be fine! I mean, I could have put it in the skid-proof cargo area, but that seemed silly, such a small cake in the cargo area. So I decided to take a chance.

Traffic was terrible. Terrible. San Francisco doesn’t have “freeways” to get across town, it’s all surface streets and whoever planned them needs a good flogging. It didn’t help that I was coming from a very heavy tourist area and trying to get to an even heavier tourist area, and although I thought I gave myself time, traffic was not moving and I knew I was running late. I HATE being late.

One thing we DO have going for us here is a very funky web of side streets and alleys that we can sometimes use to bypass horrible intersections and slow streets.

Alley. It starts by going under the San Francisco Chronicle building and takes you straight to one of the worst areas in SF - the 6th Street Corridor.

These allies, although mostly lined with apartments and businesses, can be sketchy. But whatever, I’m a city girl, and I had a cake to deliver, so I weaved thru oncoming traffic and managed to hook a left onto Minna to get to the 6th Street corridor. If you don’t know the area, it’s heavy drugs, lots of homeless, and seriously crazy people hanging out in front of half-way houses, needle exchanges, SROs, liquor stores and porn shops. You know, totally normal.

I notice on my left is a crazy-looking middle aged white dude riding a very janky bicycle on the sidewalk next to me, but he is holding onto a very nice, very shiny bike, peddling like crazy and constantly looking over his shoulder. I also noticed the bolt cutters he had strapped to his very janky bike so I knew he just stole the very shiny bike… and I was observing his get-a-way.

And because karma’s a bitch, I hit him. Actually, he hit me.

Replay it in my head: he was riding on the “sidewalk”, which in this alley is not much of a sidewalk, and he was riding as fast as he could, trying to also hold onto a 2nd bike. I am not sure what he hit to eat shit, if he was attempting to dodge and weave thru all the garbage and junkies on the ground, or if he was just completely drugged-out, but he hit something, flew off his bike and bounced off my fender. I, of course, slammed on my brakes and freaked the hell out.

I sat there astonished as this dude immediately jumped back on his bike, grabbed the other bike, told me “sorry” and peddled his butt off fleeing the scene. I’m like, wait, what? I didn’t know what to do. The dude left! Like in a freakin movie! He didn’t seem injured, I was maybe going 10 mph and he was actually going faster then me. Do I call the police? Do I get out of the car? He was gone around a corner before I could even blink. And although there were probably 20 people hanging about and milling around in this very popular drug alley, not a single one was even looking at me or seemed to have noticed that Mr. Bike Thief just bounced off my fender doing 10mph! In fact, the very non-action of the universe after such a thing happened made me second-guess that it happened at all.

Huh. Allrighty then. I took a deep breath, realized I was causing a traffic jam of cars behind me, and went on my way.

That’s when I realized my pretty little cake had gone flying off the passenger seat when I slammed on my breaks. If it had been an all-buttercream cake it would have been completely ruined. But it was ganache, and although it had some cracking, it was fixable. And miracle of miracles, I grabbed a few spare sugar lotus flowers “just in case” on my way out of the shop which saved my butt because the ones on the cake were broken.

Once the cake was safely at the venue I inspected the van and yeah, it totally did happen. There is no damage, but there is a “clean spot” on my otherwise dirty van that Mr. Bike Thief cleaned with his shirt. Or face. Whatever.

So, why do I tell this story besides to share that I totally just hit someone with my car on Saturday? After the shock wore off I realized that I just got LUCKY. L-U-C-K-Y. If he was a normal person, I’d be all kinds of screwed right now. As I sat stunned in my car practically hyperventilating because I could have just killed someone, I couldn’t help but to keep running thru a checklist of all my insurance coverage and wondering if it would have been enough to cover something like that. So lesson #1, I need to call my Farmer’s Agent to make sure I have a ton of insurance and that my van is completely covered… because you never know when the fist of mighty Zeus might smack down another meth-filled junkie in process of stealing a bike making him eat shit and bounce off your fender. This is San Francisco. It could happen, is all I’m sayin.

And my pretty little cake… it would have been completely fine and would have totally survived the abrupt stop if it had been on the floorboard of the passenger seat or in my skid-proofed cargo area. So Lesson #2, never put a cake on the seat, no matter what.

And finally, I never would have put a cake on the seat if my freakin van was clean enough to put a cake on the floorboard in the first place. So lesson #3, make sure the van is washed if I know I have to make a delivery, even if it was just raining.

So yeah, that happened.

Oh, and before you think I’m a really horrible person, I did call the police after I delivered the cake. They were completely NOT interested in the whole I-hit-him-he-hit-me with the car thing after hearing where the incident took place. Apparently it’s not a pedestrian hit-and-run when the pedestrian flees the scene and there were no injuries. Yay, I guess. However, the officer on the phone took the generic description I had of what Mr. Bounce-Off-My-Fender looked like along with the shiny bike he was fleeing with, apparently that was something worthy of reporting, which made me feel a lot better about the entire situation.

So, if you had a baby blue fancy bike jacked from the 5th and Mission area, I’m sorry but you probably are not getting it back. But if it makes you feel better, I totally hit that dick with my car for you.

You’re welcome.

Review: Georgetown Cupcakes (Packaging and Other Stuff)

Georgetown Cupcakes, home of the show “DC Cupcakes”, just broke the world record making the world’s largest cupcake.  TLC aired an hour-long special about it last week.  This is not a review on how I feel about the show, although I rarely watch it because it drives me up the wall (and this special was no exception), but I tuned in about 1/2 way thru because I caught wind that for 24 hours after that episode was aired, there was a promo code to get 40% off  cupcakes, and they ship all over the US.  With the promo code, shipping was practically free.  W00t!  I have no plans of ever being in the vicinity of Georgetown Cupcakes’ storefront and I’m a sucker for sales, so I figured, what the hell? I’ve blown $33 bucks on much stupider stuff, might as well order some.

But honestly, I was major curious how they ship.  I mean yeah, I wanted to taste their cupcakes but I REALLY wanted to see how they do their packaging, because as any professional baker will tell you, figuring out perfect packaging is like searching for the Lost Ark, and just when you think you have it all figured out you see a competitor come up with something way cool.  But also, there is lots of misinformation in the cake world about what you really need in order to ship baked goods.  I’ve read people say you need special kitchens, special permits, special nutritional labels, and pay special interstate taxes.  I’ve never found any documentation to back this up and the owners of my commercial kitchen says you don’t need any of that, but I figured, if there WAS something special, famed Georgetown Cupcakes would most certainly have it.

They ship via Federal Express overnight, and here is breakdown of what I got:

The Outer Box

The main box reminded me of a large folding shoebox made of super heavy cardboard.  It is super-branded, covered in pink with Georgetown Cupcakes’ signature black design pattern covering the entire box.  NO mistake of what’s in it and where it came from.  The only label on this box is the Fedex sticker.

Mylar envelope

Open the box and you see this – a padded Mylar envelope that is mostly sealed.  There is a card (tucked into the top of the envelope) that explains that the cupcakes were baked the prior day, shipped frozen, and to leave them out for 3 hours to defrost.  It had no nutritional info nor did it have an ingredients label, but did have the standard “food allergy” warning.  I don’t think that is a legal requirement, I think it’s done for liability purposes (but I could be wrong).

Inside the Envelope

Another box with this single ice pack.  Not dry ice, but a simple cheap gel coolant pack.  (reusable!)

The Inner Box

A better photo of the inner box, made of the same super-thick cardboard as the outer box.  Other then the logo on top, there is no other label on it.

Finally, cupcakes in sight!

Now we finally see some cupcakes, 12 of them in a super thick, plastic clamshell container.  I ordered a variety pack and pretty much chose at random.

Inside the Clamshell (from top left to right): Strawberry, red velvet, lemon berry, carrot, toasted marshmallow fudge, salted caramel, milk chocolate birthday, chocolate2, chocolate salted caramel, toffee crunch, vanilla, and lemon blossom

As if the packaging wasn’t enough, they have lollypop sticks inserted in each cupcake, I assume to keep them from hitting the top of the clamshell if the box is dropped or something.  I don;t see how that could have effected anything because these girls were frozen solid when I opened this box.

My over-all impression: I know cake is fragile, but it’s not THAT fragile.  The San Francisco hippie in me shakes my head at the waist of paper and resources that went into all this packaging.  Is it necessary?  Could they reduce some of it?  I think so.  I mean, these aren’t Faberge eggs, they’re cupcakes for crying out loud!

Oh, how did we like them, you may be asking?

Um, well...

Just to clarify, I got these to examine the packaging and to taste something that I normally wouldn’t, but the plan never was for my husband and I to actually eat these.  Please understand, I have cake available 24/7, so it’s not very often that we would eat, say, a whole one of MY cupcakes, let alone a whole dozen of Georgetown Cupcakes.  This is a pic of them today right before they go out to the trash to give you an idea of what we liked.  I believe these are the exact cupcakes that people wait in massive lines for and that nothing in flavor or texture was lost due to shipping. Hubbie liked the cream cheese frosting so that’s why you see the frosting missing off one, but honestly this just isn’t our type of cake… it’s too sweet for us.  But comparing these to say, SusieCakes or other cupcakes of the same fame that I’ve had, these are good, and I appreciate their price point (as opposed to SusieCakes, $3.00 for failed scratch cake with fake frosting from a can.  A can!  But hey, I guess it IS pretty genius to fill a failed sunken cupcake with frosting, turn it into a marketing ploy and call them “frosting filled!”).  Anyway, I really felt these Georgetown Cupcakes are priced appropriately and even though we didn’t eat all of them, I felt I got my money’s worth.

Gotta Try:  Toffee Crunch.  I swiped just frosting.  Meh.  I nibbled just cake.  Meh.  I took a bite putting it all together, and it was the tastiest of the bunch.  The flavors really worked well with each other.  2nd runner up was the Carrot cake.  Kind of a mystery to me, it seemed like a butter cake when most carrot cakes are oil-based.  Makes me want to experiment.  And with the cream cheese frosting (that hubbie ate all of), it was good.

Pass on:  Both salted caramels.  I know these are “fad” flavors, but if you are going to call something “salted caramel”, I want to taste salt AND caramel, and the chocolate needs to be rich and dark to work.

Completely gross:  Both lemon flavors.  100% artificial flavor.  They top them with those fake gummy lemons and manage to make the entire cupcake taste like it.  Complete mystery how they do it, but one I’m not willing to try and figure out.  Also, if I would have known they added so much pink food color to the frosting of the lemon berry cupcake, I never would have ordered it.  Bleach.

So there you go!

Have you had Georgetown Cupcakes?  What’s your favorite flavor?  Post a comment!

Dear Gluten-Free Friends,

Let me get straight to the point.  I’m so sorry.  I really am.  I had no idea how disgusting commercial gluten-free cake was until recently.  And now… NOW I understand why I get so many calls asking for gluten-free cake.

You’ve call me, hoping against hope that Beyond Buttercream was the answer to your prayers. You’ve believed that there MUST be a bakery somewhere in this city that makes gluten-free cake that does not taste like ass.  But sadly, due to my ignorance I have turned away your business, sending you down the street to Whole Foods or Rainbow Co-op because I know they sell gluten-free cupcakes.  I’ve seen them.  I’ve never tasted them, but I figured they must be good.

Well, a few weekends ago I was at a get together.  They had some of those gluten-free cupcakes I’ve seen from Whole Foods.  I was really curious – I wondered what they taste like?  They are HELLA expensive, so I was expecting that they would be at least decent.

Bleech.  Ug.  Nasty.  WTF?  THAT’s what you all have been forced to eat???  WTF is that “frosting”?  Holly hell, I get that they are supposed to be vegan and dairy-free also, but there are LOTS of ways to make all of those things happen without slathering what tasted like Santorum on them.  (Er, not that I know what that tastes like, I can just imagine based on this Google search).  Like being sensitive to wheat wasn’t punishment enough.  Like being allergic to wheat wasn’t punishment enough.  Like having Celiac Disease wasn’t freakin punishment enough!  Apparently some bakeries have decided to play one sick, disgusting joke on you and profit heavily from it.

I was downright offended for you.  You’ve been told that THAT crap was “the best” you were going to get, and even worse… you had to pay almost double the price of regular cake just for the privilege of eating it.  The baker in me took it as a personal challenge to take my delicious recipes, take out the wheat, add in some molecular gastronomy, and make a gluten-free cake that had a perfect cake texture, was moist without being a sponge, and most of all, actually tasted like chocolate or vanilla.  It took some work, some trial and error, and some re-learning what I thought I already knew, but I am super pleased to announce…

Gluten Free Devil's Food and Vanilla Bean cake

Devil’s Food and Vanilla Bean cake is now available in gluten-free.  Red Velvet is also, but not shown.

So I’m sorry you’ve had to do without for so long.

Love,

Me

PS – I’m sure there are lots of other bakeries that do Gluten-Free well, I am only going off my experience tasting un-named local company’s shit-in-a-plastic-clamshell disguised and marketed as “cake” purchased at a premium price from my local Whole Foods.

Mine is better.

Comments?  I would like to haz them below!

Uh, Yeah, I Changed My Name.

I changed my business name.  I am now Beyond Buttercream.  Why?  Well, several reasons.

“From Scratch” isn’t that original.  Plain and simple.  If you Google “From Scratch”, tons of different bakeries across the US come up.

“Beyond Buttercream” is completely original.

Answering the phone “From Scratch” or telling someone I’m “From Scratch” made for a strange conversation.

“Beyond Buttercream” just rolls so much easier.

So there you go.  Still me, just a re-branded me.

Oh, and check out my new website, www.beyondbuttercream.com.  I spend a LOT of time making it.

Thanks!

Recipe: The Cookie of a Thousand Names (Mexican Wedding Cake Cookie)

Like most American families, I have a few staple cookie recipes that have been passed down from mom to daughter.  At my house, we had 5 different cookies that my mom made every year, at least until I kicked her out of the kitchen:  Traditional shortbread, chocolate chip, star lite sugar crisps, chocolate peanut butter thumb prints, and butter nut balls.  My mother’s recipe box is one of the earliest memories that I have, and I can still see it plain as day – it was gold, plastic, the lid was broken, and it was stuffed with recipes clipped from Good Housekeeping circa 1970 and the like, warn old index cards filled with my mother’s perfect penmanship and the gems of the box… her mother’s really old cards that she says date back before the 1920′s.  This recipe for butter nut balls was on one of them.

Recently I got to do a small centerpiece cake for a Day of the Dead-themed wedding.  The client asked if I also made Mexican Wedding Cake cookies.  I instantly became nostalgic about my grandmother’s recipe and how good they are.  Only we called them Butter Nut Balls.  Actually, according to the Joy of Baking, these cookies are also called Russian Tea Cakes, Italian Butter Nut, Southern Pecan Butterball, Snowdrops, Viennese Sugar Ball and a Snowball.  They are all basically the same… a nut-based shortbread rolled in powdered sugar. Anyway, MY grandma’s recipe is the best.

Since I recently had the chance to make them and in the spirit of the upcoming holidays, I though I’d share the recipe, because it’s different then all the other nut ball recipes I’ve seen.  This is CRAZY easy, in fact it’s one of the easiest cookies I’ve ever made.

Rafella’s Bolas de la Mantequilla de Nuez (Butter Nut Balls)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

12 oz salted butter

1/2 cup sugar

4 cups all purpose flower

2 cups finely chopped walnuts

1 tsp. vanilla

Powdered sugar

The trick to this recipe is to NOT overbeat your ingredients, it’s like pie dough, the less you handle it the more tender your cookie will be.  First, lightly cream the butter and sugar.  Add the flour 1 cup at a time, slowly mixing until just combined.  Add nuts and vanilla, and mix  It will be thick.

Scoop out smaller then a golf ball but larger then an olive sized bits of dough, roll in your hands to form a ball and place on a cookie sheet.  These don’t rise or spread much.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Remove from oven and let them cool for 10 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.  Cookies will be delicate when they come out of the oven but will toughen up.  When cookies are cool, roll them powdered sugar and enjoy.  These cookies keep excellent in an airtight container for 2 weeks or more, making them perfect for gift-giving.

Let me know how they came out for you .

Fondant: Massa Throwdown

Every one one of these is a Massa.

There are many different brands of fondant, and like any product, you have the cheap stuff that is pure crap in flavor and workability (Wilton), stuff that works great, tastes like paste but is a good price point (Satin Ice, Fondex), and so-called gourmet stuff that’s expensive, supposed to have the best workability and is supposed to taste fantastic. Long ago I dedicated myself to only using products that enhance the flavor and performance of my cake and am willing to pay a higher price point for it, so finding the perfect fondant was no small task.  Here in San Francisco I was fortunate enough to come across Massa Ticino Tropic made by a company out of Switzerland called Carma.  I love it.  I love working with it and I love how it tastes.  Confusingly, there is another brand of “Massa” made by a company called Albert Uster Imports (AUI), also out of Switzerland.  So many people in the cake world get the two brands confused, not realizing they are two totally different manufacturers.  They often say stuff like “Massa is the best!” generally followed by “but it’s too expensive”.  True, compared to those 20 pound pails of Satin Ice that generally run about $2.50/pound plus shipping wholesale, the gourmet AUI and Carma cost considerably more, as you’ll see below.  But I always ask, what brand of Massa is “the best”?  They say… “huh?”  I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to someone that has actually had both brands and knows what the differences are.  Add to it that AUI has 2 different Massa fondant lines and it’s just mass confusion.  So I wanted to know, what’s the difference between the 3 Massas?

I happen to be a lucky girl.  I regularly use Carma’s Massa Ticino Tropic, but recently was inspired to contact Albert Uster Imports to see if I could get samples of their fondant for a fondant throwdown.  They were so kind to send me a ¼ bucket of Massa Grischuna Americana and small samples of Massa Grischuna Neutral, White Chocolate Massa Grischuna, and some Dark Chocolate Massa Grischuna.  I’ve compared them and wanted to share my opinions with you.

This product review is not so much for the general public because neither AUI nor Carma fondants are something you are going to find at your local cake store, although both can be purchased online by anyone.  This post is for my decorator peeps that have wanted to know what the differences are but haven’t had the opportunity to put them side-by-side, or for my other decorator peeps that use Satin Ice but are interested in switching to a higher quality product but don’t know which one to switch to.  I am in no way affiliated with any of these companies, and am not getting paid for my opinion, although I wouldn’t turn any money down if Carma or AUI happen to want to start giving me money .

First, definitions.  According to the AUI website, Massa Grischuna Americana is “completely opaque with a soft consistency for a perfect all-white wedding cake”.   It is the most expensive of all their fondants and I was told it was “the best” that they offer.  I’ll be referring to it simply as “Americana”.  Massa Grischuna Neutral is described as “easy-to-use rolled fondant with a wonderful soft consistency”.  This seems to be their standard line of fondant, with Massa Grischuna Neutral coming in white, ivory, chocolate, white chocolate and 2 pre-dyed colors that change seasonally.  I’ll be referring to the white fondant sample I got as “Neutral”.  Carma’s Massa Ticino Tropic is described as “for covering special occasion and wedding cakes, for decorative purposes and display items.  Suitable for coloring, easy to roll out and shape.  Special recipe for tropical climates – Especially suitable for small decoration pieces, dry quickly.”  To make this easy, I’ll be referring to Carma’s Massa Ticino Tropic as “CMTT”.  Neutral is supposed to be a direct competitor to CMTT and AUI’s Americana is supposed to be “better” then both.

Ground Rules:

Fondants were tested based on cost, flavor, workability, texture and appearance STRAIGHT OUT OF THE PAIL.  Adding additional chemicals like tylose powder or gum-tex to get a more workable consistency or to make a gumpaste alternative was not tested, nor did I mix one brand of fondant with another to make hybrid fondants.  I only the used standard fondant helpers like corn starch to prevent sticking, powdered sugar to help with consistency,  and shortening if the fondant became too dry (if necessary).

Balls of Massa

Company Differences

Albert Uster Imports have representatives, distribution hubs, and customer service in the US.  They participate at trade shows and even have a Facebook  and Twitter page.  Carma is not in the US, and their website has some really horrible English on it.  All information about Carma as a company I get from my food distributor, but it does look like they have a customer service rep in Chicago that it never occurred to me to call.  For ordering information please go to their websites and inquire direct with them, or use your Google-Fu to find retail websites.

Size

CMTT comes in 15.4 pound pails. AUI’s fondant comes in 13.4 pails.  AUI does not sell wholesale so if I needed a pail I’d have to order it online just like everyone else.  Americana runs a whopping $79.90 (that’s almost $6/pound) plus shipping.  Neutral is less expensive at $61.97/pail.  I can’t tell you how much I pay for my pails of CMTT because the price list from my gourmet food distributor is confidential, but I can say that I pay a lot LESS then I would for AUI (all versions) but more then Satin Ice, and I can pick it up or have it delivered thru my local distributor for free.

Winner:    Carma’s Massa Ticino Tropic.  The 2 extra pounds over AUI in the pail make it a better price point even if I had to pay for shipping.

Ingredients

All commercial fondants seem to have one or more hydrogenated oil product in it, and both Carma and AUI are no exception.  I hate that.  Really hate that.  The only way around it is to make your own fondant.  Believe me, if I had the space and time I would.  Real homemade fondant is out of this world delicious, but I’ve already covered in a past blog post that I need to use commercial fondant at this time.

Winner:  Having only the ingredients listed on the Americana pail vs, Carma’s Massa Ticino Tropic, Carma wins.  It has fewer ingredients listed on the pail.  I don’t really know what they are, but I stick with the rule of thumb that “less is more” when comparing labels.

Texture/Workability

CMTT has a heavy texture that you could almost describe as gritty?  When you initially get it out of the pail it feels dry until you start working it.  It quickly smoothes out and becomes elastic and somewhat soft.  You don’t even really have to get it super soft to roll it out, in fact I find the more I work it the harder it becomes to work with.  I’ve never gotten elephant skin and pockmarks are easy to polish out.  I easily lift it on my arms to cover a cake (up to 24” diameter) rolled at 1/8 “ thick.  Air bubbles are easily taken care of with a pin and a fondant smoother, it polishes to a nice sheen, dries to a nice crust, polishes beautifully, stacking is a breeze, and decorating on it is easy.

Americana has a much finer, sticky texture right out of the pail.  I actually had a problem getting some out it was so sticky.  Once you start working it, it gets even sticker, and I had to add corn starch to my silicone fondant mat just to kneed it, which I generally don’t have to do until I start to roll.  It’s very elastic, dare I say droopy.  Rolled at ¼” thick, I lifted it to cover a 6” test cake and it started stretching on my arms.  I got it on the cake and started smoothing with my hands but it tore in several places, stuck on itself and it puckered at the base.  It also thinned out in spots to the point where I could see the cake under it.  Because it was so sticky I couldn’t smooth the pucker and it frustratingly kept sticking to my fondant smoothers so I had to dust the entire surface with corn starch.  Still couldn’t get dents and puckers out.  After a few minutes you could see the shape of the cake and filling under it and I couldn’t imagine what would happen if I started getting an air bubble.  I can’t see being able to pop the bubble and working the fondant back into shape.  I pulled it off, kneaded in powdered sugar, rolled it really thick (1/4”) and was almost able to get the same coverage as CMTT.  It was still sticky though, and no matter what I did I couldn’t get the puckers out at the base of my cake.  I should also mention that they weren’t kidding, Americana is opaque and weird looking to me, where Neutral and CMTT is white.  I’ve been told that the opaque quality means it will stay true to color if you add coloring, but what a wet mess I imagine it would make as soon as you start to add gel color to this fondant that is already super soft, you would have to use powder color.  I don’t get the whole “perfect all-white wedding cake” that they advertise since this stuff just looked weird and if you take a look at the photo I’ve included, Americana is NOT as white as the fondants I am comparing it to.  Lastly, I don’t think you could use this on a chocolate or red velvet cake.  You’d be able to see right through it.

Due to the small sample of Neutral, I didn’t have enough to cover a cake so I can’t judge it fully at this point, but the texture on my fingers was right in the middle of Americana and CMTT.  A little sticky, but with some depth and a bit of grit.

Winner:  Carma’s Massa Ticino Tropic.  After all the problems I had with the Americana to cover my cake this is a no-brainer.

How It Dries

I admit, I did not allow my tester cake to sit covered in Americana, I ended up pulling it off and using CMTT for the finished cake because of the reasons I described above.  But I though I’d try and use it for some dried fondant pinwheel decorations I needed to make for a cake the following day.  I again had problems getting the texture right with the Americana, it rolled really thin but stuck to everything, including my exacto knife no matter how many times I cleaned my blade.  I had to let it sit before I could really cut stuff out of it without it stretching and sticking.  It also dented really easy, which was really annoying.  The following day it was still bendy without being brittle.  This is actually not a bad thing, you can made decorations in advance and still have some room for error when you fit them to a cake and you can carefully manipulate your mostly-hard pieces of Americana without them breaking.  I see this being really great for bows and flowers too, assuming you don’t dent your pieces with your fingernails.

CMTT cuts into anything right out of the bucket and dries almost as hard as gumpaste very quickly as advertised.

Due to the small sample I was unable to judge Neutral properly.

Winner:  Toss up – Being able to cut straight out of the pail and have pieces dry quickly using Carma’s Massa Ticino Tropic is great when moving fast, but I can see the advantage of cutting decorative pieces out of Americana and have them dry so they are easy to handle but still slightly bendy so they will still mould onto the cake easy.  I’ll be doing more test pieces in the future.

Flavor

CMTT smells divine as soon as you open the pail.  It’s a mix of marshmallows and sugar, it smells sweet and decadent.  Fresh CMTT tastes really wonderful and I don’t taste any chemicals, which is unusual for fondant.  It does have a slight gelatin mouth feel.  Once it dries on a cake it has a nice crust on the outside but is slightly gummy on the inside.

As soon as I opened the pail of Americana I honestly would not have been able to identify the contents as food, let alone something sweet.  All I could smell is chemicals and plastic (from the bag it’s sealed in).  It didn’t taste much better.  It is not as gritty on the tongue as CMTT but is more gelatinous.  Something strange happened, once my pinwheel dried it lost all flavor.  I didn’t even taste anything slightly sweet.  I guess that’s a bonus for people that hate fondant since it won’t add any flavor to the cake.  I have not tried to add extract to the Neutral to see how it takes flavoring, but I have done it with CMTT, the only flavor it takes well is almond.  I think it’s because it has it’s own flavor and it doesn’t mesh too well with other extracts like lemon, orange or hazelnut.

Neutral did taste decent, it was sweet like CMTT and had the same slightly gritty mouth feel, but it left a nutty chemical aftertaste.

Winner:  2 blind taste testers chose Carma’s Massa Ticino Tropic over both AUI fondants, and I agree with them.  Carma tastes better and compliments the flavor of the cake.

AUI White and Dark Chocolate Fondant

Carma doesn’t make a chocolate or white chocolate version, so really, the whole reason I got a hold of these AUI products was to get my hands on a tasty commercial chocolate fondant.  As you can probably tell though, I do have a bias, I used to make both white and dark chocolate fondant from scratch using high quality chocolates for both.  Being a chocolate snob, I turn my nose up to products like candy melts that contain no real chocolate and anything with “chocolate flavor”.  Homemade chocolate fondant tastes like a rolled out bar of chocolate on the cake, or like a nice coating of ganache.  I had high hopes for AUI because I know a lot of top cake artists use it and claim the flavor is wonderful.  I completely disagree.  The dark chocolate tastes like a Tootsie Roll.  Now, I know, lots of people like Tootsie Rolls, but I don’t.  I don’t think they taste anything like real chocolate.  Tootsie Rolls aren’t even made with real chocolate, and even though I only got a small sample envelope of the dark chocolate fondant and didn’t see an ingredient list, I’d be surprised to see this have any real chocolate in it at all.  I was extremely disappointed in the flavor.   Due to the small sample I was unable to test it on a cake, but I did use it to make ball centers for some flowers.  Not the most challenging of tests, I know.

I did, however, have enough white chocolate fondant to put on a cake.  It is a little opaque and softer and stickier then CMTT.  The flavor is not too bad, again not having an ingredients list, I would be surprised it was made with any cocoa butter either.  I mean, I wouldn’t sit down and nom on it, but I don’t think it’s too bad.  But I have to say, judging on it’s workability I was pretty impressed.  Getting it on the cake went as easy as my beloved CMTT rolled at 1/8”, it was nice and smooth, it adhered to Swiss meringue buttercream really nice with NO air bubbles.  I was able to roll it really thin to cover the cake drum and it dried on it overnight decently.  My complaint is that it does not dry very much.  CMTT almost creates a shell around your cake and it takes a real slip up to dent it, and the dent will smooth right out using a piece of fondant or your fondant smoothers.  The AUI’s white chocolate dried to the touch, but it stayed soft after 24 hours.  So soft smooshing the cake was really easy, and smoothing it back out wasn’t.  Decorating on it was really interesting, my ruler left dents just touching it,  I had a hard time scoring it, and I couldn’t do some of the decorative elements to the surface that I had originally planned like some crimping and some shell indentations because my tools bent the fondant in, instead of just marring the surface of the fondant.  In the end I adjusted my design and made it work.

Finished Cake using AUI's White Chocolate Massa, with white chocolate massa fondant flowers, black royal icing swag, and gold royal icing swiss dots. Purchased topper. Red velvet cake with vanilla bean Swiss meringue buttercream.

Conclusion

I’m dismissing using Americana to cover a cake.  That was an exercise in patience that I don’t have.  I plan on using up what I have making decorative pieces.  That leaves CMTT vs. AUI’s Neutral.  Without having a full sample of Neutral I can’t be sure, but I imagine it probably performs as well as AUI’s white chocolate massa as far as workability to get on a cake.  The only mystery is if Neutral stays soft like the white chocolate version, making it difficult to design on.  But right now, If I had to choose between Carma’s Massa Ticino Tropic and AUI’s Massa Neutral, I’d go with Carma’s because it tastes better, has a lower price point, and handles as you would expect your fondant to handle.   As for the chocolate versions, I disliked the flavor of the dark chocolate so much I can’t see ever using it, but I am was mostly happy with the white chocolate once my cake was decorated.  But honestly?  I didn’t like it enough to want to buy a full pail and start using it regularly.  I will be sticking with making my own chocolate fondants in the future.

I want to thank Albert Uster Imports for supplying me with the samples used for this post.  Your customer service is top notch.

Hey!  Agree?  Disagree?  Questions?  Leave a comment!

Wait, Miso Bakes? So Do I!

One thing I love love love about starting this blog is that I am becoming connected with other bloggers that share the same passion as I do for baking and cake decorating.  So thru a blogger pal through another blogger pal I learned about Miso Bakes.  I don’t know much about who she is or where she’s located, but her cakes I’ve literally spent HOURS staring at, praying to the buttercream gods that one day my work will be as phenomenal as hers.  Seriously.  Click on her page.  I’ll wait.

A few months ago she threw down a challenge to the intertubes, asking fellow cake artists to make a cake but decorate it only using a specific piping tip, no fondant.  Her 1st month she only had a few submissions.  The few cakes that were submitted, along with Miso’s cake, were so creative, so modern and so beautiful, I knew this was something I wanted to participate in, no matter how busy I was.

See, I’ve never taken a decorating class, so although I am such a buttercream gal and I own a big expensive box full of piping tips, I rarely use them.  I hate grocery store looking cakes, and when I look at that kit full of tips meant to make shells, stars, and roses… grocery store cake is all I see.  Well, after seeing what a few modern cake artists were able to come up with using a tip normally meant to make ugly shell borders around a grocery store cake, a whole new world opened up for me.

I emailed Miso.  I. Am. In!  I may not have much of a clue what most of these piping tips are supposed to be used for, but I love the idea of coming up with my own unique use as well as seeing what others come up.

July’s challenge was to make a cake using a #104 tip and nothing else.  The #104 is the tip you make roses with, but it’s also the tip you can use to make ruffles, which is a very popular look for buttercream cakes right now.  I just so happened to have had an extra 6″ cake and buttercream, so I got to playing around.  I went with ruffles, but I wanted to try a more 3-D look then you normally see.

My inspiration?  My daughter.

Adorable, right? Kaylee, 5 weeks.

I have an anti-pink thing.  Pink accents are OK, but I avoid clothes that are all pink, have stupid sayings on it, or are overly frilly.  So I LOVED this outfit (thanks Grandma!) and used it for my Miso Bakes cake.  I would have loved to make the ball accent but that would have had to use fondant.  So, here’s my cake:

Miso Bakes Project, using #104 piping tip

I wanted vertical ruffles, but make them more 3-D. I did the buttercream under the ruffles a very light pink, but it did not photograph well

Top view, also wanted a 3-D spiral effect. To my surprise, it worked well.

I would love to make this into a full tiered wedding cake, I think it would look awesome.

But the best part about this challenge?  I actually got to eat my own cake for a change

All mine! Vanilla bean and devil's food cake, vanilla bean Swiss meringue buttercream

I can’t resist – one more Kaylee pic.

Kaylee, 9 weeks

August’s challenge is with a piping tip you normally use for leaves.  I’m stumped, but looking forward to coming up with something!  Thanks Miso!

More About Swiss Meringue Buttercream, Like My Other Post Wasn’t Long Enough I Had To Go Write Another Epic Post

If you read much of my online dribble, you’ll notice I talk about butter temperature.  A lot.  The temperature of your butter effects everything.  I swear.

Recently I got into an online debate with someone about how warm butter should be when making Swiss meringue buttercream (SMBC).  To recap, when I make my SMBC I take my butter out the night before and make sure it’s room temperature.  I also say to dump it all into your bowl at one time (if your bowl can handle it) and mix on LOW.  As was pointed out to me, my method is contrary to several very famous cake artists and pastry chefs.  Toba Garrett’s very famous recipe says ” the butter should be slightly moist on the outside but cold inside”.  Ben Ron-Israel’s recipe says “butter, softened”, which means the butter should be cold enough to pick up with your fingers, then to add it in pieces.  Both say to mix on medium high.

If you have ever made this type of buttercream you’ll notice the finished product almost always has air pockets in it.  Nobody really talks about them for the home cook, but those pesky air pockets are hard to get out of the buttercream.  It does not go onto a cake smooth and leaves pock marks that you have to fill in if you want a professional finish.  Air pockets are one of those things that get worse the more you try to mess with them, too.  There are a few ways to deal with them, you can smooth your cake as best as you can, let the buttercream firm up in the fridge/freezer then fill them in one by one, or you can take your bowl of buttercream and hold it over warm water to raise the temperature by a few degrees while stirring and it’ll get rid of them.  But you also can melt your buttercream, which sucks.

Believe me, I know how it looks and sounds when some crackpot blogger says to do something totally different from these very famous, very well respected, super awesome cake artists whom I also worship.  I did it their way for a long time, and I’ve spent my fair share of time filling in pock marks and melting buttercream over water.  I just accepted it as part of how these things are done. But one day, I was making some SMBC and had a pound of butter on the counter that had been sitting out overnight.  It was nice and soft.  On a whim, I used it.  I was adding a bit at a time using a spatula because it was too soft to pick up and had my mixer on medium high, but 1/2 way there I turned my mixer onto low (so nothing would slosh out of the bowl) and chucked the rest in because, well, I’m impatient and was in a hurry.  To my surprise, 5 minutes later I had the smoothest buttercream I had ever made.  The next time I made a batch I tested my new theory… I used soft butter that had been taken out the night before, I had my mixer on low and I threw the whole pound in.  Again I got super smooth, super silky SMBC with very few, if any, air pockets.

Some have argued that my location makes this method possible since I don’t deal with high heat in San Francisco.  This is true, but neither do you if you live in an area where it gets hot outside.  You have air conditioning.  I know you do.  If you don’t have air conditioning and it gets 100 degrees in your city, do yourself a favor and move.  Dude, that’s just unlivable, man! Why put yourself through that when I know the rest of your city has air conditioning?    Seriously though, I assume your home kitchen is in the low 70′s, which is fine for buttercream making.  If it’s warmer then that you are going to have problems making any buttercream, not just Swiss meringue.

Some have argued that my location makes this method possible because I don’t deal with high humidity.  So I started paying attention to Weather.com to see how humid it gets in San Francisco.  To my surprise, I DO in fact live in very high humidity.  San Francisco is a 7×7 square land mass surrounded on 3 sides by water and covered by a constant marine layer and fog… 90% of the year. Our humidity never dips below 60% and averages around 75% with a very low dew point (it’s 78% right now).  Which means it’s humid.  Granted, it’s not 100 degrees so most people don’t notice how humid it is, but it’s just as humid as the East Coast or Florida.  Weather.com measures humidity exactly the same all over the world so, no New York, you don’t have “special” water making it more “wet” then California.  The measure of humidity in San Francisco is the SAME measure of humidity as, say, Tampa Bay, FL (which by the way, at the time of writing this has humidity at 49%.  Just sayin).

Because there have been a few people in different parts of the world that have had a hard time making any SMBC recipe, out of curiosity I made a batch of my SMBC documenting temperatures and humidity/dew point at the time I made it.  I’d love to get to the bottom of why it works here and maybe doesn’t work there, and the only way to do that is to document the exact conditions I work in.

Outside: 59 degrees, Humidity, 84%, Dew Point 54 degrees. Yes, in July.

Tools used for this experiment:  My super cool Rubik’s Cube clock/alarm/thermometer/calendar I got from Think Geek which is shockingly accurate, and a meat/oven thermometer I got form Sur La Table.

Room Temperature: 70.8 degrees, Butter Temperature, 70 degrees. Disregard the "oven temperature" reading, as it is measuring my oven temperature.

Meringue Temperature: 83 degrees, cool to the touch.

Finished Buttercream: 75 degrees.

Notice my awesome texture?  No?  Well here’s a close up!

At 75 degrees, this buttercream is perfect for me to put on a cake or pipe onto cupcakes with very few air pockets.  So, if you are still having problems, let me know the conditions of where you are, maybe we can get to the bottom of this together!

White Cake: Part 3 (with Recipe!)

Disclaimer:  I am no absolute expert, I only play one on the internet.  These are observations and techniques I use in my kitchen that work for me, my climate, my humidity, and my area.  Your individual results may be different.   

Alert the presses.  I’m finally posting Part 3 of my very popular White Cake series.

I wrote large chunks of this months ago, but didn’t want to post without pictures.  Then a few things got in the way – mainly my big pregnant belly.  At the time, all I wanted was to finish my orders so I could get the hell out of a hot kitchen and sit down and sleep.  Despite my plans to bake until the very end, I ended up shutting down the kitchen the last 7 weeks or so of my purgatory pregnancy.  See, I had complications.  Really annoying ones like gestational diabetes making me have to poke myself bleeding a billion times a day, ankles size of tree trunks, an aching back and glass in my hips, hands that seemed to loose all coordination, the attention span and comprehension of a gnat… and a demeanor that would make the Devil cower at my fat-assed feet.  Just to name a few.  But that’s all over with now, and I’m happy to report I have a very happy, very healthy bouncing baby girl.  Literally.  We can’t stop bouncing her.  She won’t let us.  She screams really loud.  My arms are really tired.

But I digress.

10 weeks have gone by since she was born and I’m back to work, which means I have ½ of a brain to get this out in the world since I have gotten a LOT of email asking for part 3, which is way cool.  What I still haven’t done is take pictures.  I suck.  So I’m winging it.

In my 1^st post I tried to mimic a boxed cake mix by trying to use oil instead of butter or shortening.  It didn’t work, and I don’t think it can work to get the results we want.  What this did for me was solidify the argument that those box mixes have way too many chemicals in them, so I hope I shined more of a light on that.

I received approximately 164 emails (164!) asking for my white cake recipe, and I’m really sorry I didn’t share it with you at the time.  Why not post my own?  Because it’s finicky and not that I don’t trust you or think you can’t handle it, but I decided I’d rather post something that is a lot more foolproof for the home cook – because that’s what we all want.  So I tested a few recipes and found one that is easy, moist, tasty, and is a billion times better then any stupid fake box cake.  I then gave this to my sister (who is NOT a baker).  And, well, if she can make this, ANYONE can.

But I’m going to take this one step further – see, there are lots and lots of recipes out there for white cake, but very few step by step instructions on how to actually make one or why you use the ingredients you are using.  Let’s face it, if you landed here, chances are you are tired of trying recipes that fail and you don’t know why.  So, I wrote a freakishly long explanation on how to make this one, breakin this bad girl down to take it one bit at a time, all in the hopes of a 100% success rate for all my readers (fingers crossed!).  So, without further ado….

 A Better Vanilla Cake, adapted from a Betty Crocker Cookbook circa 1950, posted on Cake Central,

With final changes and adjustments made by me

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees for cupcakes, 325 degrees for a cake

Should make 1 x 2 layer 8” cake with batter to spare and OR at least 2 dozen cupcakes.  Position your oven rack in the center or slightly below center.

5 oz. egg whites OR 6 oz. egg yolks

8.75 oz cake flour

11.5 oz. sugar

3 ½  tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. plus 1/8 tsp. baking SODA

1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup whole milk OR buttermilk

3.5 oz. shortening OR unsalted butter

8 oz. sour cream

2 tsp. (or more) extract

First, you’ll notice most of the measurements are in ounces.  Well, ya’all asked for a foolproof cake, and I firmly believe if you want a foolproof cake you need foolproof measurements.  You can’t get that by measuring in volume (or cups).  Invest in a digital food scale.  You’ll end up using it more then you think you will and they are pretty cheep now. It also helps with troubleshooting if your recipe does not work.  If you carefully weigh then you know your ratios are spot on and it must be something else that has gone awry.

Next, you’ll notice you have options with your ingredients because this recipe bends like a reed in the wind, meaning it’s a great base recipe that you can modify to suite your tastes and to change the flavor.

1. Egg whites or egg yolks:  Use at room temperature.  Technically, a “white” cake is made with all egg whites.  A “yellow” cake is made with all egg yolks.  The color difference between the two finished cakes is marginal, call it egg shell to ecru.  The main difference is texture and taste.  A true white cake has a slightly dryer, fluffier texture and has an “eggy” taste.  It also makes your extracts really pronounced – meaning if you add vanilla extract it’ll taste more like extract.  OTOH, a yellow cake has a richer texture and a flavor that marries well with other flavors.  When you add extracts to it, the extra fat in the yolks enhances your flavorings and makes them bright.  My default cake is yellow.  But what to do with the leftover parts of the egg you don’t use?  I use all my whites in my Swiss meringue buttercream.  If you have left over yolks make them into lemon curd (or make more cake!).  Freeze either in an ice cube tray then pop the cubes into a zip lock freezer bag and they keep for months.  Bottom line, there’s no need to throw any part away because they store just fine and there is always a use.
2. Cake flour:  Yes, you need cake flour, NOT all-purpose flour.  They are two different types of flour made with two different types of wheat.  I have successfully converted a recipe that calls for all purpose flour to cake flour, but not the other way around.  So for success, make sure you get cake flour.  Also, I don’t use unbleached cake flour, I can’t get the texture quite right, so stick with regular white.
3. Sugar:  Regular white sugar or superfine sugar, either works.  You can also use organic sugar, but I highly recommend you pass it through a food processor to break the crystals down since organic sugar has large course crystals which sometimes don’t dissolve all the way in the cake.
4. Milk or buttermilk:  Use at room temperature.  I prefer the flavor of buttermilk.  It lends a slight tang that boosts the overall flavor of the cake.  Most people think it adds fat and makes cakes more moist, but that’s incorrect.  Buttermilk is low or no fat and has less calories then milk, but what it does have is cultures containing acid for flavor and natural emulsifiers to help your cake come together and give it a nicer texture.  The more cultured, the more flavor.  You can use buttermilk in any recipe calling for milk, but you will always want to add baking soda (if there is none in your recipe) to help counter some of the acid.  If all you have in the house is milk, go with it.  Whole milk is best, but 2% should be fine also.
5. Shortening or Butter:  Use 68 degrees or colder butter, room temperature shortening.  Well, this goes back to my 1^st post about white cake.  I use butter, but as I posted about, using butter is tricky.  I suggest your 1^st time making this to use shortening.  If it works and you love the flavor, next time make it with butter and see how it goes.  You probably won’t be able to taste the difference.
6. Sour cream:  Use at room temperature.  Any sour cream will do, just make sure you stir your container if there is a puddle of water on the top.   I have also heard that you can use plain or Greek yogurt, but I have not personally tried it.
7. Extracts – want a nice vanilla cake?  Use vanilla bean paste.  Want almond cake?  Use almond extract.  Lemon cake?  Use lemon extract with some lemon zest (do not use lemon juice).  Coconut?  Orange?  Lavender?  Hazelnut?  You get my point.  Use any extract – just be careful and add it gradually because each has a different strength.  I taste my batter at my own risk with clean spoons despite the raw eggs to make sure my flavor is spot on and have never gotten sick.  Taste at your own risk.  Keep in mind the alcohol burns off while baking taking some flavor with it so even if your batter tastes strong, it should mellow.

OK, so I know you are going to ask, why no lemon juice?  Personally, I don’t bother for several reasons.  First, lemons are an acid.  Acid causes problems with your leavening agents (baking powder/baking soda).  Different regions, where we are in the growing season, organic vs. commercial etc. produce lemons with +/- pH so you could have one cake work by putting lemon juice in it, then the next cake not rise or it’ll deflate.  But here’s the thing, pH levels aside, the flavor of lemon juice bakes out of your cake, so you have to add a lot of it just to get any flavor in the first place, which then adds too much moisture… which also kills your cake.  You get much more bang for your buck by using lemon zest.  That’s where all the oil is, and oil does not bake out.  So skip the PIMA factor, pony up for a microplane zester and get some natural lemon oil extract.  It bakes into the cake beautifully and tastes like real lemons without throwing off your pH.  Stay away from artificial lemon flavor – it tastes like Pledge.

Now, mixing instructions.  This is the reverse creaming method using just one mixing bowl – trust me, it works.

Measure out your eggs in a small bowl/cup and your milk in a separate measuring cup.  Pour a bit of milk into the eggs and lightly whisk with a fork (a bit is like, a splash.  You only want to use a little bit to help break the eggs up so they will mix into your batter quicker when you add it later).  Measure all your dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt) into a mixing bowl and combine with a wire whisk. No need to sift unless your flour is lumpy (humid areas). Pour in your milk/buttermilk, sour cream and shortening/butter.  The only ingredients NOT in your main mixing bowl is your eggs and extracts.  Beat with the paddle attachment on medium high for 80 seconds. This builds the structure of your cake.  It’s a-ok if you only have a hand mixer, some have paddles, some don’t.  Use it if you have it.  Your batter should be somewhat light in color, a little thick and should start to slap the sides of the bowl with no chunks of butter remaining.  Overmixing is hard to do because you are using cake flour and there are no eggs in your batter yet, but undermixing can be a problem and could cause your cake to fall so mix every bit of 80 seconds.  When in doubt, go another 30.  Scrape the sides of the bowl.  Pour your eggs in 2 batches, mixing about 30 seconds or less between each addition or until combined.  Scrape your bowl.  Mix another 10 seconds or so.  You should have a decently thick batter.  Now you can add your flavorings.  I add mine then stir with a silicone spatula.

Scoop into lined cupcake tins or into your prepared cake pans.  Bake 20 minutes for cupcakes, 40 minutes for a cake or until done.  Until done, you say?  What the heck does that mean?  Well, don’t overbake it.

Yeah, a cliffie.  Sorry.  But that’s a whole post all on its own, because its not just one thing, its several things to get a perfectly baked, even, moist cake.  I promise, in my next post I’ll tell you how I do it.

Variations:

Strawberry or raspberry cake – replace all the milk/buttermilk and ½ of the sour cream with pureed berries.

Pumpkin:  replace all the sour cream with canned pumpkin.  Add 1 tsp. cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice to taste.

Coconut:  replace the milk/buttermilk and all the sour cream with coconut milk.  Add a handful of unsweetened shaved coconut.

Peanut butter:  replace ½ of the sour cream with peanut butter.

Marble:  Scoop out 1 cup of prepared vanilla batter and pour the remaining into your pans.  Add 2 tsp. cocoa powder to the reserved vanilla batter then swirl it on top.

Original posted recipe on Cake Central can be found here, but has problems and makes a ton of batter.

So let me hear it!  How did it go?  Have more questions?  Variation requests?  Leave a comment!