If you follow me you likely know I am a Vermonter and anyone from New England is known to be… um… frugal. I made some baseball cakes this week and when the cake rises in the hemispherical molds there is a portion that needs to be trimmed off. Well, I am not one to waste anything, especially chocolate cake.
I made what QC termed mini chocolate cakes from the remnants. Really all I did was to make some White Meringue Frosting and cover the tops of the cakes and add a few sprinkles. Easy, peasy.
RemnantsFirm Peak White Meringue FrostingVoila!
White Meringue Frosting
INGREDIENTS
¾ cup (170 g) confectioner’s sugar
3 large egg whites
2 Tbl cold water
1 tsp lemon juice
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
METHOD
Place all ingredients in the stand mixer bowl and whisk until well combined.
Chose a saucepan large enough so the mixer bowl will rest on the rim but not touch 1-2” of water in the saucepan.
Once the water is almost boiling, place the mixer bowl on the saucepan and whisk the mixture. Turn the burner to low. The water should be not quite boiling. The mixture must not boil. Whisk until all the sugar is dissolved or you will end up with a grainy looking frosting. Check to see if it has reached 160-170⁰ F.
Place the bowl in the kitchen mixer with the whisk attachment on. Whisk the meringue frosting until stiff peaks forms and has a glossy look. This can take up to 12 -15 minutes or more. But don’t over-beat. You will beat air into the frosting. It needs to be easily spreadable
When the white meringue frosting is ready, if desired it can be colored with food gel colors. This frosting will crust over time, but the center of the frosting swirl will still be thick and fluffy.
Cakes and cupcakes with white meringue frosting can be stored in the refrigerator for two days.
Tip: Makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes. If using it on cupcakes, use a plastic piping bag and a large piping tip for great cupcake swirls
Yesterday was Fran’s (a.k.a. QC’s) birthday and for any who know her she feels Dani Rojas had it almost right: “Baseball is life” but Dani, American football is a close second.
To celebrate. I decided to make personalized, individual baseball birthday cakes. I had 2 1/2 inch silicone hemisphere molds but thought they would be too small a piece of cake so I bought two 3” ones. (In hindsight, the smaller ones were probably adequate, but would be more difficult to decorate.)
Due to the need to keep the cakes cold this is a pretty long procedure. It required about 6 hours total.
These photos were from a test batch before I decided to use pink raspberry buttercream for fill and bind the cakes.
Extreme Chocolate Cake Baseballs
Makes five 3” spherical cakes
INGREDIENTS • For Cake: 3 cups white sugar • 2⅔cups all-purpose flour • 1¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder • 2¼ teaspoons baking soda • 2¼ teaspoons baking powder • 1½ teaspoon salt • 3 eggs • 1½ cup milk • ¾ cup vegetable oil • 3 teaspoons vanilla extract • 1½ cup boiling water • For Buttercream: 2 stick softened butter • 2cup icing sugar • 4-6 Tbl milk • For Raspberry Buttercream: 1 stick softened butter • 1 cup icing sugar • 2-3 Tbl milk • 6 oz fresh raspberries • For White Chocolate Ganache: 450g White Chocolate • 110g (½ cup) heavy cream • ~1 tsp white food coloring • For the Black Royal Icing: 1c (120g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted. • 1 Tbl meringue powder (not plain egg white powder) • 3 drops black food coloring • 1 Tbl Black Cocoa • 2-3+ Tbl room temperature water • For the Red Royal Icing: 1 c (120g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted. • 1 Tbl meringue powder (not plain egg white powder) • 3+ drops red food coloring • 2-3+ Tbl room temperature water
METHOD
Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Spray two 3” cell diameter silicone molds with Pam For Baking or equivalent. Line a 9×11” jelly roll pan with parchment paper.
Make the cake: In a stand mixer bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mix for 3 minutes. Stir in the boiling water by hand.
Use a 1/3 measuring cup to fill each well two thirds full.
Pour remaining batter into jelly roll pan and spread to flatten.
Bake for ~25 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean or 205 internal temp. Do NOT let the internal temp exceed 205 deg F or the cakes will be overdone.
Cool for 10 minutes before removing from silicon molds to cool completely.
Remove he cakes from the molds and refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm up the cakes.
Set small sheet cake aside to be used as a base for the baseballs when serving.
While the cakes are cooling make the raspberry buttercream: a. Make Raspberry Syrup: Heat 170g of raspberries in a small saucepan with two Tbl sugar and heat until boiling. b. When the raspberries are very tender mash them to break them into a sauce. c. Sieve the raspberries to remove the seeds and pulp and return to heat to reduce by half then cool. d. Make Raspberry Buttercream: Mix the butter and icing sugar and raspberry syrup. Add more milk as required to make the buttercream soft and easily spreadable. Beat at high speed until the buttercream is smooth and well mixed. (You may need to add the additional milk to achieve the desired viscosity as the cake will be very tender and fragile.)
Form and assemble the cake balls: With a sharp knife cut the top of each hemisphere to flatten and create a small hole in each cake (I used a melon scoop) a. Fill the hole in each hemisphere and cover half of the cakes with buttercream b. Mate each coated hemisphere with an uncoated one and return to fridge to set the buttercream.
Make vanilla and grass-green buttercream: Repeat making raspberry buttercream but substituting milk for raspberry syrup. Divide the buttercream 4::1. Color the larger amount with green food coloring to use to decorate the sheet cake later. a. Use the vanilla buttercream to fill any holes around the circumference of the cake ball and crumb coat each ball. (I dipped the ball in a thin buttercream and used gloved hands to smooth.) b. Return to the fridge to set the buttercream.
Make the white chocolate ganache: The ganache must be pourable but thick enough to cover each ball with a smooth coating. a. Fill a saucepan with water to about 2 inches deep. b. Place a metal or glass bowl over the warm water. Make sure the bowl does not touch the water. c. Place the chocolate and cream in the bowl and stir frequently. When the chocolate is almost completely melted, remove it from the heat and let the rest of the chocolate melt while it sits off the heat. Add white food coloring until the desired level of whiteness is achieved and mix well. If there is any un-melted chocolate let it rest until all the chocolate melts. As long as the mixture is warm, the chocolate will continue to melt.
To coat the balls: Place each cold ball on a stable surface that will keep them in place. a. Smooth the cold balls with gloved hands. b. Pour the white ganache over each ball, covering completely. Allow the chocolate to harden at room temperature, or in for fridge. c. If desired re-coat the balls by chilling them and repeat from step #12.
Make the Black Royal Icing: Combine confectioners’ sugar, meringue powder, black food coloring, black cocoa and 2 Tbl of water in a large bowl. a. Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat icing ingredients together on high speed for 1.5 – 2 minutes. b. When lifting the whisk up off the icing, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 5-10 seconds. If it’s too thick, beat in more water a few drops at a time. c. I usually need 3 Tbl but on particularly dry days, I use up to 4-5 Tbl. d. Keep in mind that the longer you beat the royal icing, the thicker it becomes. If your royal icing is too thin, just keep beating it to introduce more air OR you can add more confectioners’ sugar. e. Remember the icing has to flow through a very small piping tip so it cannot be to thick. If it’s too thin it will run (for reference, see my photos)
Make the Red Royal Icing: Sift confectioners’ sugar and meringue powder into a large bowl and add 2 Tablespoons of water. a. Add half the water after sifting the sugar. Add the remaining water or more, checking flow consistency of the icing is what you want for piping etc. b. Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat icing ingredients together on high speed for 1.5 – 2 minutes. c. When lifting the whisk up off the icing, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 5-10 seconds. If it’s too thick, beat in more water a few drops at a time. If your royal icing is too thin, just keep beating it to introduce more air OR you can add more confectioners’ sugar. d. When applied to cookies or confections in a thin layer, icing completely dries in about 2 hours at room temperature, quicker in the fridge.
Decorating the baseballs: Use black royal icing to draw the seams of the baseball. (I suggest doing one ball at a time, returning to the fridge between piping steps.) I wanted each person’s name written in script on each baseball using the black royal icing. a. After all the names and seams are piped and the black royal icing is setting in the fridge, clean the piping pen and fill with red royal icing. b. Remove the baseballs from the refrigerator, one at a time, and pipe the red stitches in the traditional baseball style. c. Return the baseballs to the fridge but bring them to room temperature an hour before serving.
Make turf: Cut small sheet cakes into 3×3” squares and pipe green buttercream covering each square using a Wilton 233 piping tip or equivalent. Center each baseball cake on a piece of turf.
A month ago, QC and I went to Apple Hill to buy some, wait for it,… apples! This is our traditional trip up past Placerville. It’s a nice drive up and we take a backroad home through the Sierra Nevada foothills. It looks a lot like Vermont.
I made a couple of dozen pints of applesauce, (we like applesauce.) and had leftover apples, beyond those we ate. I found a recipe for an apple pie designed to be prepared and frozen (for up to 2 months.) I also have a nice pie crust recipe I never used so along with the apples, the time was ripe. If you do not over-mix the fats and dry ingredients and do not over-work the dough the crust will be very flaky and delicious like this one.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t wait the full two months to complete the test, and baked it today, almost exactly one month from freezing. (Next time I will make two pies.)
Two Slices, two plates.
Apple Pie Ready for Freezing
PIE CRUST • 2 ½ cups (315g) all-purpose flour plus more for shaping and rolling • 1 teaspoon salt • 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, chilled and cubed • 2/3 cup (130g) vegetable shortening, chilled • ½ cup (120ml) ice cold water
INGREDIENTS – PIE FILLING • 6 c thinly sliced, peeled apples (6 medium) • ¾ c sugar • 3 Tbl all-purpose flour • ¾ tsp ground cinnamon • ¼ tsp salt • ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg • 1 tsp lemon juice
METHOD CRUST
Whisk the flour and salt together in a large bowl.
Add the butter and shortening. Use a pastry cutter, cut the butter and shortening until it looks like coarse gravel. (A few larger bits of fat are OK). In this step, you’re only breaking up the cold fat into tiny little flour-coated pieces; you’re not completely incorporating it. Do not overwork the ingredients.
Measure ½ cup (120ml) of water in a cup. Add ice. Stir it around. From that, measure ½ cup (120ml) of water, since the ice has melted a bit. Drizzle the cold water in, 1 Tablespoon (15ml) at a time, and stir with a silicone spoon after every tablespoon has been added. Stop adding water when the dough begins to form large clumps. Do not add any more water than you need.
Transfer the pie dough to a floured work surface. Using floured hands, fold the dough into itself until the flour is fully incorporated into the fats. The dough should come together easily and should not feel overly sticky. Avoid overworking the dough. If it feels a bit too dry or crumbly, dip your fingers in the ice water and then continue bringing dough together with your hands. If it feels too sticky, sprinkle on more flour and then continue bringing dough together with your hands. Form it into a ball. DO NOT OVERWORK THE DOUGH!
Use a sharp knife to cut it in half. If it’s helpful, you should have about 1 lb, 8 oz dough total (about 680g). Gently flatten each half into 1-inch-thick discs using your hands.
Wrap each tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 5 days.
After the dough has chilled for at least 2 hours roll it out, one crust at a time, keeping the other in the refrigerator until you’re ready to roll it out. Lightly flour the work surface, rolling pin, and your hands, and sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough. Use gentle-medium force with your rolling pin on the dough—don’t press down too hard on the dough. When rolling dough out, start from the center and work your way out in all directions, turning the dough with your hands as you go. Between passes of the rolling pin, rotate the pie crust and even flip it, to make sure it’s not sticking to your work surface. Sprinkle on a little more flour if it’s sticking; don’t be afraid to use a little more flour. Roll the dough into a very thin 12-inch circle. Your pie dough will be about 1/8 inch thick, which is quite thin. Visible specks of butter and fat in the dough are perfectly normal and expected.
Carefully roll one end of the circle of dough gently onto the rolling pin, rolling it back towards you, slowly peeling it off the work surface as you go. Pick it up, and carefully roll it back out over the top of the pie dish.
METHOD – PIE FILLING
Place 1 pie crust in 9-inch disposable foil or metal pie plate (do not use glass). Press crust firmly against side and bottom of pie plate.
In large bowl, gently mix filling ingredients; spoon into crust-lined pie plate.
Top with second crust. Wrap excess top crust under bottom crust edge, pressing edges together to flute and seal.
Tightly wrap unbaked pie in 3 layers of plastic wrap, making sure all sides of pie are completely sealed and unexposed.
When ready to bake pie, heat oven to 450°F. Remove frozen pie from freezer; cut a few slits in top crust and place in oven. Do not thaw pie.
Bake 25 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F; bake 40 to 50 minutes longer or until crust is golden brown and apples are hot and soft when pricked with a fork. If necessary, tent the edges of the pie to reduce darkening and bake in 10-minute periods until the internal temperature of the pie is 190 – 200°F.
aBatteredOldSuitcase 