Eli Cooks » cake

Urban Foraging – Mulberry Honey Cake

Eli — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:36:25 +0000

There’s a white mulberry tree a few blocks from my house. It’s in the yard in front of an apartment building and every year it drops tons of berries on the ground, but no one seems to pick any of them. I’ve been walking past it on my way to and from work every day for more than three years now. It took me while to think “Hey, those berries look edible. If no one else is using them, I should.” Then it took me a while longer to indentify the tree. (I may be foolish, but not so foolish to eat unknown berries from an unknown tree.) I finally got a positive ID on the tree last fall, just in time for the tree to stop growing berries for the year. So this spring when it started growing berries, I was determined to pick some.

Well, I picked some a few weeks ago. I didn’t want to walk around in someone else’s yard too much, so I just grabbed the ones close to the sidewalk. Even so, I got a bit more than half a cup. But then I realized that I didn’t know what to do with mulberries. They have a really light, sweet, honey-like flavor, like a cross between raspberries and honeysuckle. And like most fruit, the white ones are sweeter and more subtle than the standard variety.

Mulberry trees bear fruit pretty much continuously from June through September or so, so I knew I had plenty of time to experiment. The first batch (and the second) I just ate out of hand. Then my wife mentioned there are several mulberry trees growing in a city park near where she used to work. (Yay, legal foraging!) On the way home from the farmers market, we decided to stop by and pick some mulberries too. My daughter loved picking the berries, and actually managed to pick more than she ate, which was a bit surprising. The trees had branches low enough we could just pick from the ground (or from my shoulders in my daughter’s case.) Picking from just a few of the trees and getting just the branches easily reached from the ground we got more than a quart of berries. There were both black and white mulberry trees and some berries that looked like a hybrid of the two. We picked all three types.

I’ve seen mulberries at farmers markets before, but they grow wild through a good part of the midwest and are pretty common in parks and yards around Chicago. Why pay for them when you can get them free? If you live in Chicago, keep your eyes open next time you’re walking through your neighborhood; maybe you’ll find some unexpected treasure. But I might suggest coming back in an old shirt; black mulberries stain like a bitch. Our unplanned endeavor earned us three ruined shirts and several splotchy mulberry juice “bruises” where the berries fell out of the tree and hit our skin.

Mulberry Honey Cake
Adapted from Gourmet, June 2009

The bit of honey in the cake really complements the honeysuckle-ly flavor of the mulberries. I used a dark, full-flavored honey, since I wanted to use just a bit. (If you add much more honey, the cake will get more moist and dense.)
Also, I think it’s really cool how you just put the berries on top of the cake and they sink into the batter as it cooks.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 stick (4 Tbsp) unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh mulberries, stems removed*
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease and flour a 9-inch springform pan. (You can use a normal cake pan, but it comes out of a springform more easily.) Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

Beat butter and 1/2 cup sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add honey and vanilla, then egg and beat well after each addition. At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.

Pour the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Scatter berries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar.

Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan at least 10 minutes, then remove from the pan. (If you’re using a springform pan, you can let it cool all the way in the pan.)

* Mulberries have a short little skinny stem that’s hard to remove without mashing the fruit. It’s too tough to leave on and it doesn’t just pull out like a raspberry; you have to kinda pinch it off with your fingernails. It’s rather a pain in the ass to pinch off all those little stems. This cake is worth it the trouble.

Cherry Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake

Eli — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:29:47 +0000

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a near-obsession with upside down cakes. I’ve got a few stand-bys that I make several times a summer – which means they’re REALLY good since there are few thing I actually make twice. But I’m always on the lookout for something new. Well, this is something new and probably a soon-to-be-standby as well.

It did take a bit of work to halve and pit all the cherries by hand. (And made a mess of my counter in the process.) But it was worth it in the end. Still, it brings me one step closer to thinking maybe a cherry pitter is a one-use gadget that’s worth its space.

I was very pleased at the way the sweet cherries and balsamic vinegar played off each other, and the cornmeal cake was great too. I tend to prefer more fruit in my upside-down cakes than most recipes call for, so I upped the fruit, but I’d probably up it a bit more the next time around. Still, I have no complaints with it as is.

Cherry Cornmeal Upside Down Cake

Adapted from Bon Appétit, June 2008

The original recipe called for whole milk, but I used skim because, well, that’s all I had at the time. It was great as is and I can’t imagine whole milk would have made it much better.

Makes one 10″ cake

1/2 cup + 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
3/8 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 cups fresh Bing cherries, pitted (I halved mine, but whole is fine too)
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal (preferably stone-ground medium grind)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, separated
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup skim milk

Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 350°F. Combine 6 Tbsp butter with brown sugar and vinegar in 10- to 11-inch ovenproof skillet with 2-inch-high sides. Stir over medium heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes. Increase heat to high; add cherries and bring to boil. Remove from heat.

Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat 1/2 cup butter in large bowl. Add sugar; beat until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with milk in 2 additions each, beating just until blended and occasionally scraping down sides of bowl. Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another medium bowl until whites are stiff but not dry. Using rubber spatula, fold 1/4 of whites into batter to lighten slightly. Fold in remaining whites in 3 additions (batter will be thick). Spoon batter over cherries in skillet, then spread evenly with offset spatula to cover cherries.

Bake cake until top is golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool in skillet on rack 5 minutes. Run spatula around edges of cake to loosen. Place large serving platter upside down atop skillet. Using pot holders or oven mitts, firmly hold platter and skillet together and invert. Leave skillet atop cake 5 minutes. Remove skillet. If necessary, rearrange any cherries that may have become dislodged. Let cake cool at least 45 minutes. Cut cake into wedges and serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Dad is great! He gives us chocolate cake!

Eli — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:47:59 +0000

A few weeks ago I made a wedding cake for a friend. This is not something that I do often by any means. I will admit that I took classes in wedding cakes and sugars and such back in school…but that was a few years ago, and I can’t say that I’ve really kept up on the skills in the meantime. Suffice it to say I was more than a little nervous about the cake, but it turned out well and the bride was very pleased, so that’s what matters. Perhaps someday I’ll write more about the whole big thing. This is about the test run I did for the chocolate layers.
If you see one, tell me.)

I tested out a few different chocolate cake recipes, but I had an idea this would be the one before I baked any of them. By the time I had the batter mixed, I was positive this was the winner. When it came out of the oven, I decided to skip the third recipe I had planned to test altogether. Seriously. This cake really is that good – moist, rich (but not too rich) and chocolaty. AND it’s sturdy enough to hold up as a wedding cake.

I’d never made a recipe that called for mixing cocoa powder with boiling water. I was quite surprised to see it turn into something resembling ganache. Guess there’s always something new to learn. Other than that, the recipe is easy as hell on top of everything else. What’s the downside? (Really. If you see one, tell me.)

I made a raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream for the top, also a test run for the wedding cake. Well, the wedding cake got just plain SMBC, without the raspberry…but I had to do something special for the test run. I didn’t want them to feel too bad about being just a test run afterall. I know I’m nowhere near the first person to talk about how great SMBC is, but it really is amazing. Buttercream, but light and fluffy without that “I just ate a spoonful of Crisco with sugar” mouthfeel. If you’ve never made it, it’s well worth the few extra steps.

When making Swiss meringue buttercream, remember: Just. Keep. Beating. At some point you’ll think you’re almost done beating the buttercream. It will start to look a bit like frosting and you’ll think it’s ready, then suddenly you’ll have a bowlful of egg white soup with little chunks of floating butter. You’ll want to throw your mixer across the room and slink back to old reliable royal icing…even if it’s not good, you can’t screw it up. But just keep beating it a while longer and it will come back together into a bowl of fluffy white lovely.

Oh. The title of this post. For almost two weeks leading up to the wedding, I had that old Bill Cosby standup routine running through my head. You know the one…

Dark Chocolate Cake

Adapted from Gourmet, September 1996

I made a half recipe for my test run. Unless you’re actually making a wedding cake, a half recipe should be plenty. Unfortunately, none of the fractions come out so well in halves. Oh well.

Makes 1 6″ cake, 2 3″ cakes and 5 cupcakes (or if you want to be reasonable, I’d gues 2 8″ – 10″ cakes)

7/8 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
7/8 cups boiling water
2 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
4 ounces sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 7/8 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 1/2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350° F. and line 2 buttered 7- by 2-inch round cake pans and 2 buttered 9- by 2-inch round cake pans with rounds of wax paper. Butter paper and dust pans with flour, knocking out excess.

Put cocoa powder in a bowl and whisk in boiling water in a stream until smooth. Stir in chopped chocolate and let stand 5 minutes. Stir mixture until smooth and chocolate is melted and cool mixture. Whisk in sour cream and vanilla.

Into a bowl sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. In large bowl of a standing electric mixer beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy and add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down side of bowl. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture and cocoa mixture alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating until batter is combined well.

Divide remaining batter between pans and smooth tops. Bake cupcakes and 3″ cakes 20 to 25 minutes, 6″ cakes 25 to 30 min and 8″ or 9″ cakes 30 to 35 min, or until a tester comes out with crumbs adhering. Let cakes cool in the pan on a rack about 10 min, then run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert cakes onto racks. Peel off paper and cool cakes completely. Cake layers may be made 2 days ahead and kept at cool room temperature, wrapped well in plastic wrap.

Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Adapted from The Whimsical Bakehouse

The original recipe calls for unsalted butter, but I used 2 sticks salted and one stick unsalted and got a really nice sweet/salty flavor.

Makes about 4 cups

1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup egg whites (about 6)
3 sticks butter at room temperature, cut into 1″ pieces
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup raspberry jam (I prefer with seeds)

Bring the sugar and water to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, boil for 7 minutes. After about 5 minutes, begin whipping egg whites at high speed. Whip until stiff; they should be done when the sugar is done.

With the mixer on high speed, slowly add the sugar syrup to the egg whites, pouring the syrup to the side of the bowl to avoid the whip.

Continue to beat until the bowl is cool to the touch, about 10 to 15 minutes. Slowly add the butter and continue beating. Add the vanilla.

Beat until light and fluffy. At some points the mixture might will look curdled. Just keep beating; it will become smooth again.

Once the buttercream is light a fluffy, add the raspberry jam and continue beating until it’s light and fluffy again.