Still Life with Cheesecake

Cheesecakehouse-Five

2009-08-16T14:05:00.016-04:00

...or the time my mom made FIVE different types of cheesecake

Okay, I know that is a really poorly constructed literary reference but I've been reading a lot of Kurt Vonnegut lately and I couldn't think of anything better. I'll try not to cloud this post with too much text so I can let the cheesecakes speak for themselves. Some background: last month my mom threw a couples wedding shower for my awesome cousin, Doug, and his lovely new wife, Aundrea. For dessert, she made FIVE different types of cheesecake. I decorated them. Recipes and decorating strategies are available upon request.

All of them, in their collective glory:

CAKE 1: Irish Coffee Cheesecake with whiskey-flavored whipping cream

Cake 2: Grandma's Lemon Cheese Pie with white chocolate leaves

Cake 3: English Toffee Cheesecake with Heath Bar topping

Cake 4: New York Cheesecake with macerated berry topping

Cake 5: Chocolate Mocha Cheesecake with Tia Maria chocolate truffles

My mom is awesome. So are Tia Maria Truffles.

My favorite cream cheese frosting

2009-08-16T13:08:00.009-04:00

I discovered this recipe for creamy brown sugar frosting back in March when I was searching for something to top the Guinness chocolate cupcakes I made for St. Patrick's Day. Unexpectedly, it was one of those [baking] life changing discoveries that has fundamentally altered my baking repertoire.

Its concept is super simple: use less sugar and make some of it brown, but the result is delicious. I love cream cheese frosting and it has always been a staple of my mom's delicious cakes, but I think somewhere deep down I was dissatisfied with how sweet it usually is (and how the sweetness can mask the cheesy deliciousness). This recipe is still sweet, but the brown sugar has more depth of flavor and helps highlight rather than overpower the cream cheesy goodness.

The basic brown sugar cream cheese frosting recipe is easy to customize to every situation to make sure it complements whatever you choose to pair it with. For the Guinness cupcakes, I skipped the O.J. and added whiskey and a bit o' green food coloring. I rarely have orange juice concentrate on hand (and as a poor grad student, I'm not about to buy a whole can just to use 1.5 tablespoons) so I've used regular orange juice or Cointreau (orange-flavored liqueur) whenever we have some available and it adds a nice tanginess to the frosting. Usually, however, I just substitute whatever liqueur seems the most appropriate to the baked good being frosted or just stick with the vanilla alone.

Creamy Brown Sugar Frosting:
Recipe from Epicurious.com

12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Beat the cream cheese and butter together until creamy. Add the brown sugar and beat until well incorporated. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar 0.5 cups at a time. Finally, mix in the vanilla and orange concentrate (or other flavoring).

A couple of recipe notes:
The brown sugar gives the frosting a light tan color (so it's not the traditional white).
Its consistency is very creamy - if you are frosting a cake, you might want to stick it in the refrigerator for 45 minutes to firm.

If you're looking for something delicious to whip up as an excuse to make frosting, my standby recipe for a quick dessert is depicted below: cream cheese frosted brownies from a box (...I know it is a lazy option, but have you tried the Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownie Mix??? It is, hands down, the best brownie mix on the planet. I buy it in bulk from Costco.). One batch of brownies uses about 1/2 batch of creamy brown sugar frosting and berries.

Festive Red Velvet Cake

2009-07-05T22:47:00.026-04:00

I've never completely understood the appeal of red velvet cakes. I must be missing something because as far as I can tell, the concept is to create a cake with a deep red color using A LOT of food coloring and a tiny bit of chocolate. This seems like both an over-reliance on food coloring and an under-utilization of chocolate. But I've been subjecting my roommates to my standard 4th of July dessert (brownies topped with cream cheese frosting and berries) all Spring and my mom's other traditional 4th of July dessert (which is an awesome red, white, and blue jello) doesn't seem to be a popular proposition with certain influential habitué who don't like the idea of fruit in their gelatin... so I needed to find something else festive and preferably tasty for Independence Day: enter the red velvet cake.

As mentioned somewhat disparagingly above, a typical red velvet cake achieves its tacky (yet festive!) red color using an almost reckless amount of red food coloring paired with a hint of unsweetened cocoa to deepen the red. This recipe I found on Epicurious was fairly highly rated for deliciousness (an important factor in something that otherwise seems unimpressive) and was easy to assemble. The total time from incredulous start to somewhat melty, but satisfying finish was about three hours.

Step 1: In which I make a really big red mess preparing The Cake
(recipe adapted from Bon Appétit, June 2003 using reviewer suggestions)

This modified recipe has extra butter and added sour cream which (along with the buttermilk and cake flour) results in an incredibly moist and rich cake. The three tablespoons of cocoa powder aren't enough to qualify this as a chocolate cake, but the chocolate/vanilla limbo in which it hovers is actually a surprisingly delicious place to be.

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour (sifted, then measured)
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon red food coloring
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs

Sift together the dry ingredients (cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder) and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla, and food coloring. The ideal amount of food coloring depends on how concentrated your stock is. I used a thick concentrate and ended up putting about 1.5 teaspoons into the batter. I'm not sure if that was the right amount, but the resulting cake seemed red enough (see pictures below).

In another bowl, beat together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, being sure to mix well after each addition. Beat about 1/4 of the dry flour mixture into the butter base until incorporated and follow it up with about 1/3 of the red buttermilk mixture. Keep alternating flour and buttermilk additions until you run out. To avoid the giant red mess that I produced at this step, be sure to start mixing slowly when adding the buttermilk.

Pour the batter into two 9 inch round pans that have been buttered and floured (it's also a good plan to line the bottoms of the pans with a round of parchment first to make removal even easier). Bake the cakes in an oven preheated to 350°F until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. The recipe suggests a baking time of about 27 minutes but mine took significantly longer. The cake half that I put in a regular cake pan took 32 minutes and the other half that I baked in a springform pan (because I couldn't find my second cake pan) took nearly 40 minutes. Cool the finished cakes in their pans on racks for 10 minutes and then invert to remove and continue cooling completely.

Step 2: In which I make a medium-sized blue mess making The Filling

I had some leftover mascarpone cheese from the Delicious Berry Covered Cake of Deliciousness to use up so I decided to fill the red velvet cake with the same filling and add blueberries. The cheese filling is surprisingly light so I thought it would work fairly well to complement the rich cake. Finally, I tinted the filling blue with EVEN MOAR food coloring to really ensure that the cake's "Yay, America!" message was garishly obvious.

Step 3: In which I didn't have enough time to let The Frosting set up

I opted for the original recipe's basic cream cheese frosting to frost the outside because I ran out of mascarpone cheese filling. The cream cheese frosting was tasty, but perhaps a bit too sweet.

2 8 oz packages cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Ad vanilla and powdered sugar. Beat until lumps are gone and awesome creamy texture is achieved. I took the dairy components out of the refrigerator early to warm up so the frosting was easy to prepare, but not quite firm enough to work with by the time I needed to assemble the cakey monument to patriotism. I'm sure that if I had let it set up in the fridge for at least an hour, it would have been perfect, but that would have been an hour not spent drinking at the party and I was already ridiculously late... so I just covered up the melty problem areas with berries.

Step 4: In which I Assemble the Cakey Monument to Patriotism

To assemble the cake, just slap on a healthy coating of mascarpone cheese filling over the bottom layer of cake. Do a quick, thin crumb coat on the outside of the cake with the cream cheese frosting. Preferably let that set up in the refrigerator for awhile to make a firm base, and then top with a final layer of frosting. Attractively arrange berries of your choice on top (and around if you have frosting troubles you want to cover up) and voilà! Cake!

Conclusions: If a cake could have a theme song, this one would be "America, f** yeah!"

As a red velvet skeptic, I was pleasantly surprised with the tastiness of this cake. I think, however, that the delicious flavor and moist texture had a lot more to do with the amount of butter used in the batter rather than its inherent redness. The tepid use of cocoa was interesting, but would probably leave most people wishing there was a bolder chocolaty flavor. Overall, it embodied the flamboyant patriotic look I was hoping to achieve and it was almost entirely consumed at the party so I think I will call it a success. Nevertheless, I don't think I'll be ready to consider busting out red velvet cakes for less colorful occasions any time soon.

Crazy mutant phallic strawberry

2009-06-28T11:57:00.007-04:00

My boss picked this strawberry from her garden this week. Her running hypothesis for its appearance is that it is some crazy hybrid strawberry created by a cross of the special strawberries she planted and some local wild strawberries that started growing in amongst them.

In case you are wondering, the normal looking part of the strawberry was very tasty and the phallic outgrowth was kind of tart.

Delicious berry-covered cake of deliciousness… with mascarpone cheese!

2009-06-16T00:43:00.027-04:00

One of my more baffling personality quirks (or defects?) is that I periodically experience a weird sense of baking urgency. Once it’s triggered, the desire to bake something snowballs until it creates mildly uncomfortable levels of anxiety and can rarely be slowed by rational obstacles like exams, work deadlines, or insufficient funds. I’m not complaining, though, because these episodes usually result in a fun dinner party or late night bake-fest. I’m not sure why this nagging sense of urgency is directed almost exclusively toward baking and not toward more important, time-sensitive activities (like laundry, cleaning, mailing birthday presents, or bill paying…), but I suspect that I should readjust my priorities.

Last week was the season debut of our delicious local strawberries, so naturally I was anxious to make something with them. I have been eyeing this recipe for mascarpone-filled cake with berries on Epicurious for awhile because I enjoy anything that combines cake with tasty fruit and cheese. In addition to its cheesy attractions, the cake seemed like it would be the perfect showcase for the new summer berries. So when my lovely roommate Megan suggested making dinner on Thursday, I jumped at the chance to be in charge of dessert - to try out the recipe and simultaneously relieve any strawberry-based anxiety. The result was a delicious berry-covered cake of deliciousness that I definitely plan on making again.

The Cake (From Gourmet July 2008):

The cake itself is a fairly simple buttermilk vanilla cake. It has a moist, tender texture (due to the cake flour and buttermilk) that plays perfect host to the rich mascarpone filling and tangy berries. I added some lemon peel to give it more flavor and balance some of the sweetness.

2 cups sifted cake flour (sift before measuring)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened*

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 large eggs

1 cup well-shaken buttermilk

2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon peel

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in the vanilla until well incorporated. Beat in the eggs one at a time. On low speed, slowly beat in the buttermilk until just combined. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture to batter in three batches, mixing until just combined. Stir in lemon peel. At this point, the batter was fairly thick and delicious looking.

Butter a 9 inch round pan (I used a 9.75 inch springform pan to make taking the cake out easier), cut out a sheet of parchment paper to fit in the bottom, and butter the parchment paper. Spread the batter into the pan, tap on the counter to get rid of bubbles, and bake on the middle rack of an oven preheated to 350°F. Bake until golden yellow and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes.

Cool cake in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge to loosen (and/or magically open the springform pan and remove the sides), then invert onto a plate. Discard paper and reinvert cake onto rack to cool completely.

Macerate the Berries (while the cake is baking):

In the process of fan-stalking this recipe, I discovered that there is an actual term for the act of letting berries stew/soften in juices: maceration! I’m sure that “to macerate” is a kitchen verb I should have been familiar with prior to making this cake, but my brief sense of shame over my culinary ignorance was quickly outweighed my enthusiasm to test it out… with lots of alcohol. This part of the recipe seems the most flexible – just pick berries (or peaches or other delicious fruits) that are in season, choose some complimentary alcohol, add sugar, heat, toss together and voilà**- you have macerated! The original recipe calls for sherry but we didn’t have that stocked in our liquor cabinet of rarely consumed liqueurs so I improvised with the mixture below – which still made a pretty tasty syrup:

1/3 cup Chambord raspberry liqueur

1/3 cup Crème de Cassis currant liqueur

1/2 cup sugar

3(-ish) cups mixed berries (I used blueberries and chopped strawberries)

Bring alcohol and sugar to boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat

and pour over berries. Let sit 15 minutes.

Make the Creamy Mascarpone Cheese Filling:

Obviously, this is the most important feature of the cake (because mmm cheese!) and is also very easy to whip up. Just beat the ingredients together and then try not to eat it all before it actually makes it onto the cake.

8 oz mascarpone cheese (1 cup)

1 cup chilled heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar

Beat mascarpone and cream with sugar in a large bowl until mixture just holds stiff peaks.

Assembling the Masterpiece:

After the cake has cooled, carefully slice it in half horizontally (so that it essentially becomes like a giant hamburger bun). Spread the mascarpone filling generously on top of the bottom layer of cake, replace the top layer by centering it on top of the filling, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and garnish with berries (see Conclusions section below).

I used a sharp cake knife to do the cake surgery and it worked beautifully. The only hard part was removing the top layer without breaking it. I ended up turning the whole thing sideways with a plate on either side and then opening it like a book. I doubt that was the easiest or smartest way to tackle the problem… so in retrospect, I’d probably go for some spatulas/turners and an uncaffeinated helper chef or two.

Conclusions:

I love this cake. It is the perfect spring/summer dessert. The only thing I would change for next time is to serve the macerated berries on the side and garnish the top of the cake with some fresh berries (or really well drained ones) instead. The berry syrup was quickly absorbed by the cake and unfortunately left it with a grey color and soggy texture. The taste and look of the syrup is fantastic (remember, it’s mostly alcohol so it’s definitely worth keeping), but much like my hair on a humid day, the cake is not quite sturdy enough to handle the excess moisture and still look presentable.

Future Directions:

Peaches!

Chocolate!

* After years of being perpetually unprepared, I’ve finally mastered the lazy (wo)man’s butter softening technique: microwave for 18 seconds on 40% power.

** Note for roommates from New Jersey: "Voila" is not an actual ingredient.

This kind of love is probably inappropriate

2009-06-05T15:59:00.018-04:00

For my first real entry, I thought it would be appropriate to pay homage to what is quite possibly my most treasured possession – my KitchenAid Artisan Tilt-head Stand Mixer, in lilac. The Mixer and I have been together for five glorious years now, and every minute of our relationship has been rewarding – which is more than I can say about a lot of other expensive purchases (stupid lemon Philips DVD player – I’m looking at you).

Our storied friendship began the summer before my junior year at UCLA, when my lovely roommates and I were moving out of the dorms and into an exciting two bedroom, 900 ft(2) apartment. Despite its many deficiencies (including an ugly and useless fireplace, expansive views of another building ten feet away, and some creepy bathroom ceiling mold), the apartment had a decent mini galley kitchen and was centrally located next to a pretty nice Ralph’s grocery store where I once saw Ashton Kutcher. Importantly, with my new access to a real kitchen I could finally justify buying a mixer of my very own! And then I could run across the street to Ralph’s and buy things to mix in it!

I had been coveting a KitchenAid of my own for several years (I think it dates back to the efficient fleet of KitchenAid stand mixers in my Home Economics class in middle school) and was thrilled to discover that they now came in colors! INCLUDING PURPLE! So with what little money I could scrape together from spending most of my summers in a perpetually blissful state of unemployment, I stalked and finally purchased a beautiful 10-speed, 27 lb, lilac mixer. It dwarfed what little counter space we had in the kitchen (sorry, Val, Jennifer and Mayin…) but it was everything I had ever dreamed of in mixing power:

10-speed solid state control
(10 speeds of awesome!)
Strong 325 watt motor
(it’s strong like bull… and will probably outlive me)
Tilt-head design allows clear access to the beater and bowl
(this is important because I find the “Bowl Lift” models frustrating and difficult to use)
5 quart polished stainless steel bowl with ergonomic handle
(apparently capable of holding a whopping 7 lbs of mashed potatoes)
Includes flat beater, dough hook, and wire whip
(the dough hook doubles as Captain Hook’s claw, and refuses to fit in any drawers)
Power hub for additional attachments
(I don’t have any of these yet but they intrigue me- have you seen the ravioli maker?)
Unique mixing action
(the beater hits 67 points around the bowl!)
Assembled with pride in Greenville, Ohio
(I think the pride makes your food taste better)

As Valerie can attest to, in those early months I used just about every excuse I could muster to use the Mixer, even if it wasn’t quite food-chemistry appropriate (using a mixer to make brownies or pancakes is not the best plan). Together, the Mixer and I made lots of exciting foods with an emphasis on learning the art of cheesecake construction. Sadly, I didn’t own a digital camera in that era so I only have a few pictures (see Halloween cupcakes below) to commemorate those good times.

Over the years , our insalubriously co-dependent relationship continued to grow, and when I moved 3,000 miles east for graduate school, the Mixer came with me. Unfortunately, shipping a 27 lb mixer is not exactly cost effective, but I couldn’t leave her behind. The Mixer has now lived in 3 states, 4 different counties, and currently graces the counter top of our glorious lakeside villa.* Because her 325 watt motor is built like something really strong that never breaks (I couldn’t think of an appropriate metaphor here because she might outlast everything but the roaches), I’m sure that together we will continue to have many fun and exciting baking misadventures for years to come, or until I can find someone to buy me this one, in Grape.

*I might be exaggerating about our glorious villa, especially in its proximity to the lake, but it is really nice. See the granite counter in that photo?

Because my baking adventures and failures need a narcissistic outlet

2009-06-03T14:37:00.000-04:00

Post 1: Figuring out how to post.

Update: apparently accomplished.