Heavenly Cake Baker: Swedish Pear and Almond Cream Cake

This week's Heavenly Cake Baker cake was the Swedish Pear and Almond Cream Cake on page 58 of Rose's Heavenly Cakes. I am not much on a fan of cakes with fruit in them and I hate marzipan - which I assumed was the same as almond paste although, after a bit more research I discovered it isn't - so I wasn't holding out much hope for this cake. But, of course, I shouldn't have doubted Rose.

I skipped adding any almond paste or almond flavoring and decided to include the pear as instructed and while the cake part of the cake was delicious with a very tender crumb, the overall was kind of a crap shoot.

The cake did not brown well in my bundt pan (it very well could be the pan, as it's pretty lightweight) and the top part, where the pears were, completely stuck to the pan...so the presentation was pretty sad. I'm not sure if it was a lack of the almond flavor giving it some depth, but I also found that the pears were pretty tasteless. The cake itself though was very nice. It was light and airy in texture with a simple, straightforward flavor.

In one of my baking classes a few months back we made a frangipane pear tart using canned pears and I remember thinking at the time that the pears were really mushy and bland but that I thought it would be delicious with fresh pears...Well, now I think that's not the case since the fresh pears in this cake were also really mushy and bland. Maybe my pear was overripe? Not sure, but if I do make this cake again I'd probably just leave out the fruit all together.

mise en place

my "well" for the pears

pears are layered in...I tried to make a pretty design but it didn't make any difference in the end

looking good so far....

d'oh! not sure if I didn't prepare the pan properly or it's just a bad pan but this was disappointing.
It didn't brown well at all (other than the open end) even though it was
cooked through so I'm going to blame the pan.

most of the pears stayed in the pan

the cake itself though was great! Very light and tender.

Bye for now...

Avid Baker's Challenge: Overnight Cinnamon Buns

I've been really busy with work these past 6 weeks or so and haven't been able to bake as much as I would have liked. I was sad to miss the last assignment of the Heavenly Cake Bakers, Zach's LaBomba - thank you Marie, this has been a lot of fun! And, luckily for us HCBakers who came late to the kitchen and haven't yet finished the book, Knitty Baker is picking up the torch.

For now though, I'm very late to the party for the Avid Baker's Challenge this month, but hey, better late than never! May's assignment was Overnight Cinnamon Buns from the wonderful Flo Braker's Baking for All Occasions. Although I've only made a few recipes so far from this book, they really do seem pretty fool-proof. My only continuing complaint is the lack of pictures in the book. *lightbulb!! I should print out a picture of each recipe I make and tape it into my book.*

Overall, these cinnamon buns were fantastic and I will definitely be making them again! They were pretty easy to make which was nice because I've always thought that cinnamon buns = hard and intimidating. And they made me want to throw a brunch party, because, really, there's not much else better than pulling a hot tray of cinnamon buns out of the oven, drizzling on a sugary glaze and them serving hot to the ooohs and aaahs of hungry family and friends! The texture was light and airy (due to the potato?!) and the flavor was great - a hint of orange, cinnamony but not too sweet, and a yummy glaze. Next time though I think I'd like a bit more filling and a bit more glaze.

I was too impatient to make this a true overnight baking adventure so I went with a more traditional rising cycle. I checked a few other similar recipes in the book and "about an hour/doubled in size/until your finger pressed into the dough leaves an indent" seemed to be the standard, so that's what I did. I let it rise for about 50 minutes until it was a bit more than doubled in size. The dough was still a bit sticky so I wasn't able to see if my finger would leave an indent but since the other telltale signs were there I figured I was good to deflate and roll it out. Flo's doughs are always so nice (and easy) to work with! The only thing I was confused about was - unless I somehow missed after several readings - the recipe never indicated when/where to add the orange zest. I ended up just adding it to the dough at the last minute. I think it also would have been nice added to the filling mixture.

mise en place

mixing the potato, milk, butter while the yeast proofs

yeast gets added to the potato mixture and after a bit gets all light and foamy...I love baking
because it's really a big science experiment!

finished dough, ready to rise. It was a little sticky at this point, but
I didn't want to toughen it up by adding more flour and continuing to knead it
so I kind of just left it alone...all good in the end.

while it's rising, I'll make the filling. I used pecans instead of macadamia nuts
and added a bit of cardamom in with the cinnamon and nutmeg.

risen!

divided in half and ready to roll out

filling sprinkled on

rolled up and ready to slice. I used the dental floss technique to slice it
(sorry for the blurry picture - I was trying to slice and take the picture at the same time)

I didn't have two quarter sheet pans so I used a half sheet pan and put all the buns on together...
worked perfectly!

after the second rise...ready to bake

smells delicious

mise en place for the glaze

I like the addition of nutmeg to the glaze...
it's my favorite spice, but I never would have thought to add it to a glaze.

glazed and ready for eatin'!

yum!

such a light and tender crumb

Bye for now...

Baklava

I am an absolute baklava fanatic...and a bit of a baklava snob. I hate dry baklava and I hate artificial tasting baklava - you know, the kind that leaves a film on your tongue and is all grainy (I think when made with oil instead of butter)? Yuck.

So what was a budding young baker to do? Into the kitchen and learn to make it myself! Years ago I found a recipe and gave it a go and boy, oh boy, fresh baklava is just amazingly delicious. It's nutty (obviously!) and sweet - but not super sweet like in many restaurants - and the honey syrup has a light lemony flavor which seems to get lost when it's commercially produced. Sadly, I've lost that wonderful recipe from so many years ago (and also whatever skill I might have had with cutting the perfectly shaped piece - as you will see below) so I turned to the ever-handy google in search of a new recipe. I came across these 2 that looked pretty decent (from allrecipes and epicurious), and adapted them to better fit my tastes (and what happened to be in my pantry). If anyone wants my full recipe, leave me a comment and I'll email it to you.

mise en place (I used a combination of walnuts, pecans
and blanched almonds and lightly toasted them before grinding them)
my spice mixture includes cardamom and freshly ground nutmeg

lemon zest added to the ground nuts

I added lemon peel, cinnamon sticks and a vanilla bean to the syrup mixture

8 buttered filo layers go down as the bottom and top
(although next time I'll add about 5-7 more to both bottom/top)

a sprinkling of nuts then 2 more buttered filo, repeat until you run out of nuts

top with 8-15 more buttered filo layers and slice before baking
here you can see my insanely weird (and too large) slices

baked to a golden brown

pour the cooled honey-sugar-lemon syrup over the hot baklava

delicious!

it's calling my name...

the top and bottom layers were crispy and the middle, nut-filled layers were soft and chewy...YUM!

I originally made this baklava about a month ago and decided to make it again this morning. This time I got the slicing down perfectly! A few pictures from this morning...

ahhh...these pieces look much better than those above!

for this batch I used more nuts and more layers on the top and bottom so the slices are a bit taller

Bye for now...

Heavenly Cake Baker: Golden Lemon Almond Cake (free choice)

This week's Heavenly Cake Baker cake is a free choice. Since I was so bowled over by the Golden Lemon Almond Cake (page 37) from Rose's in-person demonstration the week prior, I had to try my hand at it. My bundt pan is not nearly as intricate as Rose's was, but the cake came out beautifully.

The cake has an amazing lemon flavor and delicious buttery undertones. The ground almonds add some texture to the tender crumb of the cake and, I think, also add to its moistness (it stayed tender and moist for a full week!). It really is a sublime cake and was very easy to make. Upon tasting it, my husband said this was the best cake yet and was ridiculously moist. This one is going on the "make again soon" list. In fact...perhaps this weekend!

mise en place for the cake. I didn't have cream cheese so used crème fraîche instead...delicious!

almonds are toasted and then ground with a little of the sugar.
Rose also recommended tossing in the lemon zest to break up the zest a bit more

the butter and part of the crème fraîche is added to the dry ingredients;
then the egg mixture is added in

one third of the batter is poured into the pan

and then smoothed out to force it into the pan's crevices

the rest of the batter is poured in

while the cake is baking, the lemon syrup is made: lemon juice and sugar...yum!

the hot cake is poked with a skewer and then...

a third of the syrup is brushed over the top and left to drip into the holes

after the cake is turned out, the rest of the syrup is brushed over the top of the cake and
forms a lemony-sugary coating. My crust didn't come out as well-done as the picture
in the book, but it was still fabulous!

so tender and delicious, it doesn't even need any embellishment!

Bye for now...