Day 3: Red Raspberry Almond Passion Cake

Today has been really long. My older brother's favorite teacher passed away on Thursday, and my family was asked to prepare some food for his family. So, bright and early, after getting nowhere near enough sleep, I got up and began baking. And pretty much stayed baking whenever I was at home. I baked two different dishes to be given away.

But it's SATURDAY.

So even though it's been craycray busy and tiring both physically and emotionally, I am keeping my promise of making something intricate!

Today, I decided to make a Red Raspberry Almond Passion Cake using a recipe from Desserts to Die For by Marcel Desaulniers (http://www.amazon.com/Desserts-Die-Marcel-Desaulniers/dp/0684811391/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375597283&sr=8-1&keywords=desserts+to+die+for).
I slightly modified some of the process, but not by very much.

And trust me. It's intricate.

Well, let's get to it then!

The Expectation

This is the picture in the recipe book. I don't think it's real; obviously photoshopped.

Or that's what I'm telling myself anyways.

The Cake: Almond Cake

Ingredients

3/4 pound (3 sticks) butter, plus a little

3 cups cake flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups sliced almonds

5 large eggs

2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream

1 cup hot water

The Process

Sift together the cake flour, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl.

Hopefully your sifter isn't as horrible as mine, and it won't be such a pain. I actually enlisted my dad to do this so I could go ahead and get started on the next step.

Fit your standing electric mixer with a paddle. Beat 3 sticks of butter and the sugar on low for 3 minutes.

While this is happening, begin toasting your sliced almonds. I used a toaster oven, but you can also use a regular oven as well. Once toasted, place the almonds in a bowl or plate.

Now is also a good time to preheat your oven to 325 F.

After the first 3 minutes of the mixer on low, scrape down the sides. Then bump up the speed to medium, and beat for another 3 minutes.

Return back to your almonds. You'll need to chop them up, except not really. After about two uses of a big knife to try and chop the slices, I had a brilliant idea. The knife was somewhat hard to use, and sent the cut pieces flying everywhere, and was extremely time consuming. (And I got that from only two uses!) I realized there just had to be a better alternative! And there was, and a simple one at that; just use your hands to crush the almonds. Easy to contain, easy to do of slices at once. Just make sure the almonds aren't still hot.

After beating the butter-sugar mixture on medium, scrape down the sides again. Add the almonds to the mix, and beat on medium for 30 seconds.

Scrape down the sides again. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 30 seconds at medium speed, and scraping down the sides every other one, and after you've beat in the last.

Add the vanilla and almond extract. Bump up the speed to high, and beat for 2 minutes. Begin microwaving your cup of water.

Scrape down the sides. Drop the speed to low, and put half the flour mixture into the mixing bowl. Scoop up half a cup of sour cream, and add it, followed by the other half of the dry mix, and then the other half of the sour cream. Let it mix for 30 seconds.

Now that your water is hot hot  (I hope you stopped the microwave so that it didn't bowl over, even though I didn't explicitly tell you to), add it to the dough. Mix 15 seconds, then bump up the speed to medium and beat for another 15-20 seconds.

Now remove the mixing bowl. It's okay if everything isn't completely incorporated; use a rubber spatula to finish mixing the batter

This is what the finished batter should look like.

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Time to prep your cake pans! Using some more butter, grease the bottom of a 9" round cake pan. (I actually only had 8" rounds, so this was what I had to resort to using!)

Now I lined my cake pans with parchment paper, as the recipe called for. Which is pretty hard considering the pans are round, and a rectangle piece of paper doesn't fit too nicely inside. To help prevent wrinkles, in the parchment paper and thus prevent wrinkles in the cake itself, I cut slices into the paper that ran up along the sides, and then laid the pieces on top of each other so it would lie flatter. Unfortunately, it still didn't lie completely flat. Poo. But a definite huge improvement than no cuts at all!

Then the recipe says to grease the parchment paper again!

I have some issues with this process, so I've got some different suggestions later down.

By the time you've finished prepping your pans (at least if you follow the recipe's directions!), you should probably mix the batter with your spatula again to make sure everything is still incorporated. Then divide the batter evenly between the two pans.

Unashamedly eat all the remaining batter. It is absolutely de-lish.

Now bake dem cakes! Bake until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

The recipe says this should take 35-40 minutes, but it took me a whopping 53! Maybe because I used 8" pans instead of 9"? Anywho, just follow the age-old toothpick rule.

Once fully cooked, let the cakes cool in the pans for 15 minutes. Then remove the cake from the pans and parchment paper. I found this easiest by flipping the pan upside down onto a plate, then lift the pan off the cake. Let cool for another 30  minutes.

Pull out your frozen raspberries for the filling now! Also clean your electric mixer bowl and paddle.

The recipe directs to make this into one big cake, meaning you'll have to level both cakes. I decided just to make it easy and just leave them as two separate cakes. Level if you want one big cake; choose whether you want to if you want two. (I'm pretty sure those last 7 words in that sentence are some sort of really cool literary technique, but I don't know which one; if you do, tell me in the comments below! Okay, nerd moment over.)

Either way you choose to go, slice each cake horizontally in half. The recipe says to use a "slicer" to do this, but I have no clue what that even is. I just used a serrated knife, which worked just fine. Slice as evenly as possible; it helped me to turn the cake a little as I went, only cutting in about 1/3 of the way, and then slice through the last bit in the middle.

The recipe then says to put each slice on cake circles, but I don't have those either. So I put them on the bottom of some plates we had, which worked quite nicely. (I put them on the bottom because it'll make icing later a bit easier; if your plate bottoms don't work, you can feel free to use a round pizza tray, or just the right side of the plate.)

Place the layers into the refrigerator as you continue on to the Red Raspberry Crush filling!

The Filling: "Red Raspberry Crush"

Ingredients

8 oz packaged frozen raspberries, thawed

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Since I decided to make two smaller cakes, I didn't need as much of the filling as the recipe directed to make, so I halved the amount of frozen raspberries (it was originally 16 oz).

The recipe also called for the raspberries to be in light syrup, which is why I didn't halve the amount of sugar.

And I actually just used half of a teeny-tiny lemon, so I didn't actually measure how much I used; this is an estimate. It might have actually been more. The original recipe called for only 1 tsp, but I promise, this much lemon tastes goooood, and isn't over-powering.

The ingredient amounts above reflect what I used for my cakes. If you've decided to level all of your layers, I suggest using double what is shown above.

The Process

Mix all the ingredients into a food processor.

If you're just squeezing a lemon half or quarter (depending on the size of your original lemon), make sure there aren't any seeds that end up in the mix!

Now blend blend blend until everything is mixed together and smooth, which should only take around 15 seconds.

The original recipe says to strain the seeds out, but I didn't. It tasted fine to me with the seeds, so I didn't see a problem. I guess it's just personal preference!

Since I didn't take the time to strain it, I took a break for a few minutes to let the cake layers refrigerate a little longer. I think this helps the cake become a little less porous, so the filling isn't just all absorbed into the cake.

After a short while, remove all of your flat top layers from the refrigerator. Drizzle 3-4 tbsp of the filling onto the tops. Don't use any more though! The recipe warns more will leave your cakes soggy and gross; it's expected you'll have extra filling. Since I only used 8" rounds, I used a good 3 tbsp.

Using a rubber spatula, evenly spread the filling.

Replace the layers back into the fridge, and move on to the icing!

The Icing: Semi-Sweet Chocolate Almond Buttercream

Ingredients

1.5 oz unsweetened chocolate

1 oz semi-sweet chocolate

1 stick butter

1/2 almond extract

1 large egg white

1/4 cup granulated sugar

If you look at the expectation picture, you'll notice that is a TON of icing! I'm generally not a huge icing fan, plus I already came to the fact there was no way I would be able to have smooth icing surfaces (which requires a lot of icing to accomplish), so I went ahead and fourthed the amount.

I also accidentally switched the amount of semi-sweet versus unsweetened chocolate! BUT I love love love the way this icing turned out, so it was a great mistake!

The ingredients above show what I personally used.

The Process

Use a double boiler to melt the chocolate. Cover the top with a pan lid, and let sit for ~3 min, then stir until fully melted.

Remove from heat and set aside.

Replace the lid on the pan of water, but turn off the stove-top; you'll need the double boiler for later. If you only have one pan that'll work on top, move the chocolate to another bowl.

Use an electric mixer and beat the butter on low for 2 minutes, then on medium for 3. (The recipe actually calls to use a paddle whisk on the mixer, but I didn't clean my bowl nor the paddle, so I just used my handheld mixer. I think it made making the icing much more of a pain.)

If using a standing electric mixer, now is a good time to clean the top double boiler bowl, if need-be.

Scrape down dem sides! The crank it up to high and mix until your butter is light and fluffy, like your favorite fleece blanket as soon as it comes out of the dryer (approx. 4-5 min). Add the almond extract, and continue to beat on high for another minute.

Remove one quarter of the butter and whisk it together with the chocolate. (This'll make mixing the entirety of the two much much easier.)

Now mix this with the entirety of the butter, and beat on medium until the two are completely mixed together (approx. 1 min). Scrape down the sides of the bowl. (Don't give me that look! I know it's tedious, but we both know it's necessary. Plus, I actually made this recipe and actually had to scrape down just as much as I'm telling you to!)

Now for the final hoorah, mix on high for 2 minutes, until "light and fluffy" like a lint ball.

Return to your double boiler. Begin heating the water again.
Separate the egg white and egg yolk.
Place the egg white and sugar in the top of the double boiler, and whisk until the mix is warm (~120 F, ~2 min).

Transfer the mix to a mixing bowl, and use an electric mixer to whip the eggs until stiff peaks form (~6 min). The recipe strongly suggests using a balloon whip, but I don't have one. So I just used my regular hand mixer again. Make sure you clean off the butter/chocolate mix from the whisks though!

When you're done, the egg mix should look like marshmallow cream.

Use a rubber spatula to fold the egg mix into the choco-butter.

Putting It All Together

To actually assemble the cake, remove the layers from the fridge. Stack them as you chose to when you cut them.

Now ice the cake. As stated, I decided earlier not to be all professional; I don't have the tools to (nor did I have the energy!).

I used a rubber spatula to smooth the icing as best as I could onto the top of the cake, starting from the middle and moving out. After each time the spatula touched icing, I scraped off the remaining icing back into my big bowl so that the spatula would be smooth and non-sticky as I spread more.

I then moved to the side of the cake, using my spatula or butter knife (I alternated) and moving the icing along the side, the spreading tool parallel to the side. It's okay if some icing sticks up off the top of the edge; once you're finished icing the side, gently go back with the spreading tool and lightly scrape off the top excess. Let me tell you, this side icing process sure made me wish I had a fancy rotating base!

To garnish the cake, I cut some small strawberry halves, and placed them along the outer edge. I then placed some bigger halves in the middle.

I realize this'll make it seem as though the middle filling is strawberry rather than raspberry, but it was what I had!

Place the cake back in the fridge, to help set the icing. (This can be done before or after the garnish.)

I actually only put together one cake, as it was really late. The other is still waiting patiently in the refrigerator. In case you're wondering, I do have enough icing left to ice the other cake, even with only a fourth of the original recipe's amount!

The Finished Product

I'd say that's pretty darn close to the expectation!

Some Notes

The cake is pretty strongly flavored. I like it this way, but if you want a milder taste, I'd suggest using only 1 tsp of almond extract for the batter.

This icing is light and mild, unlike every other icing I've ever used!

When I ate the cake, I drizzled some of the extra raspberry filling on top. Yummmmm.

If I Could Do It Again....

I'd modify the greasing/lining process, for sure.

I actually had some leftover batter after filling the cake pans, so I experimented just a little, greasing a small square glass pan with only butter. This worked pretty well; there was one tiny spot that didn't come out of the pan with the rest of the cake.

Merely greasing the pan with butter would probably work just fine if you used a non-stick pan. Even if you didn't,  I'd probably still just do this, because it prevents creases in the side, and cuts down a lot of time from prepping the pans.

Another idea for those fond of parchment paper: cut out a circle for the bottom of your pan, then a small rectangular strip for the sides. One person will need to hold the strip to the side of the pan, at least at first, while another pours in the batter to make sure it stays in place.

If I did use parchment paper, I definitely wouldn't have greased both sides with butter, and seen how that worked out. (I unfortunately didn't have enough extra batter to test this method.)

I might have gone ahead and made the original amount of raspberry filling, just so I could have enough to serve alongside the cake.

I'd have definitely cleaned my mixer and paddle after making the cake batter, so I could use it while making the icing. That would have made things much easier.

I'd actually make and use more icing! The icing was pleasantly mild, and not overpowering. This is actually my favorite icing I've ever made, ever! (Two evers for the emphasis of EVER!) I think using a little more would have been really nice for this cake, though I still probably wouldn't have made the entire batch as the original recipe called for; probably half instead of a fourth.

I'd also buy and use raspberries for decoration instead of strawberries.

The Final Verdict

This cake was goooooood. Definitely worth making again!

But it was also definitely very time consuming. To cut down on the time, you could possibly only make the batter, or make the filling just to be served with the cake, which cuts out a lot of steps. I wouldn't suggest using store bought icing, as that stuff is entirely too overpowering for this cake. You could possibly use cool whip instead though.

You could also make the cake/filling one day, and then the icing the next. The cake itself is definitely forgiving enough for that, and doesn't need to be served right away. I probably wouldn't refrigerate it for the entire time though, just enough for the filling to set.

This recipe would greatly appeal to a mature crowd. I can see it being an absolute hit at any party with primarily only adults. 

If this is for a big event, do consider how you plan to make it, either one cake or two. Two would give you more cake to share, but one would look more impressive.

If you're wary of the intensity of the recipe, try out at least the cake! Though the other parts definitely add to the finished product, the cake has enough power to stand alone.