Kitchen3N

Recipes and food fun from Apt 3N

Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

IMG_9692Swiss meringue buttercream is a cake decorator’s dream. If you’ve ever tried to get a really smooth looking cake from a traditional American buttercream, you’ve probably noticed it’s very very difficult to do so. Mainly because of air bubbles. American buttercream relies on the aerating of butter and sugar to achieve the desired volume and consistency. So between the air bubbles and stickiness from the sugar, it’s hard to get it super smooth!
IMG_5774Swiss meringue buttercream, however, is light years beyond in terms of texture. There is a bit of a learning curve the first couple of times you make it, but once you have it down right, it is so smooth, tints so well, it really takes your cakes from home style to bakery quality.

To start, you combine egg whites and sugar, and heat it over a double boiler until it’s hot to the touch (160 degrees on a candy thermometer to get the egg whites to a safe temperature). You whisk the whole time, until the mixture reaches a milky appearance. Once that’s done, you move on over to a stand mixer where you beat beat beat the egg whites until you get a beautiful, glossy meringue.

When the meringue is thick, glossy and ROOM TEMPERATURE, add the room temperature butter, one pad at a time. At this point, it might look like a gloopy mess, but stick with it and keep beating until the buttercream comes together. It should look like stiff whipped cream at this point.

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Add the vanilla, then melted and cooled chocolate. This is one of the few points of departure from my beloved Ina Garten. She has a recipe for chocolate swiss meringue buttercream but there’s SO much liquid in it (vanilla, kahlua, rum, more chocolate), that it broke when I tried to make it. I’m sure it tastes wonderful, but mine does too, while still holding up to piping =)Use a spatula to wipe down the sides and bottom to ensure all the chocolate and buttercream are fully incorporated. Final step is to try to not eat it all out of the bowl. It is delicious and the added sugar from the chocolate makes it the perfect sweetness – whereas plain vanilla buttercreams are barely sweet. Enjoy!!

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Recipe adapted from smitten kitchen.

Ingredients

  • 4 egg whites
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 26 tbsp (3 sticks plus 2 tbsp) unsalted room temperature butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 lb plus 8 oz* semi sweet chocolate, chopped small**

Directions

  1. Melt chocolate in the microwave in a heat proof, non metal bowl at 30 second intervals, stirring in between intervals, OR over a double boiler (in a bowl set over simmering water, ensuring the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl). Set aside to cool.
  2. Whisk together the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of the stand mixer. Place over double boiler, ensuring the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl. Keep whisking until the sugar is dissolved AND the water is hot to the touch (if you dip your finger in, should be too uncomfortable to keep there). Or you can insert a candy thermometer and whisk until the temperature registers 160 degrees F. Then remove from double boiler, wipe the water that has condensed on the bottom of the bowl and place in the stand mixer. Insert the whisk attachment and set the speed on medium to whip up the egg whites.
  3. When the egg whites have thickened, and the temperature has cooled to room temperature, add the butter, one pad at a time (1-2 tbsps) until all the butter is incorporated. The mixture might look soupy at this point. Turn the mixer on high and keep whisking until thick. This can take 3 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of your batch. Reduce the speed to low and add vanilla and melted chocolate. Mix until thoroughly combined.***

*One pound plus 4 oz of chocolate makes a luscious, chocolately buttercream. If I need to pipe something like ruffles, I would leave it at 1 pound chocolate. If I’m just filling/frosting, I would go the full 1lb 4 oz.
**I wouldn’t recommend using chocolate chips in lieu of chopped baking chocolate or chocolate bars. The waxy coating or whatever is on them keeps them from blending in uniformly with the buttercream.

***Enough to frost, fill and decorate an 8 inch 2 layer cake. Enough to frost and fill a 9 in 2 layer cake.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

IMG_4847I was incredulous the first time I heard the words “Zucchini Bread” at my adopted Jewish grandmother’s apartment some 15 years ago. Her name is Sophie and she was my mother’s confidant, advisor, protector and friend for many years. She taught her the value of saving. She raised two children during the Depression. She told my mother, every week she set aside $0.50. She grew such a small sum into stake in a multi-million dollar company and a condo in a luxury apartment building in downtown Manhattan. IMG_4854So when she talked, we listened:

  • “Eat Romaine lettuce, not iceberg. It’s all water.”
  • “Ya ever tried zucchini bread? It’s delicious.”
  • “Take care of ya mother. She works hard.”

Right on all counts. Take it one step further with chocolate zucchini cake. I was skeptical when a mom brought zucchini brownies to a play date. But it had such deep chocolate flavor! And it was moist! And magical! I realize that zucchini’s blandness kind of works in its favor in baked goods. Between that and the water content, it’s the perfect vessel for delivering a rich, moist, chocolate crumb. I was nervous as I folded the 3 cups into the batter, that those eating the cake would see slivers of green running throughout, but it melted right into the cake. And with that much veg content, you don’t feel like the world’s worst parent when your kid (and husband) reaches for it throughout the day.

Adapted barely from King Arthur Flour.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick) at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 3/4 cups sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt (next time I would try increasing this to 1 tsp!)
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk, sour cream, or yogurt (I used buttermilk)
  • 2 1/2  cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa*
  • 3 cups shredded zucchini
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 cup heavy cream

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9″x13″ baking pan.
  2. Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Stir gently to combine.
  3. In a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a handheld electric mixer, beat butter at medium high speed until light and airy – about 1 minute. Lower the speed to medium low and gradually add half the sugar, then oil, then remaining sugar. Add vanilla, then eggs, one at a time, until incorporated fully. Stop to scrape down the bowl. Turn on the mixer briefly once more to incorporate everything.
  4. At low speed, add half of the flour/cocoa mixture. Then slowly pour in the buttermilk (or sour cream or yogurt). Add the rest of the dry ingredients.
  5. Remove bowl from stand mixer and fold in the zucchini with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. When fully incorporated, pour into greased pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool.
  6. Heat heavy cream in a saucepan until scalding hot (bubbles appear around the perimeter). Pour over the chocolate chips and stir until it becomes a spreadable ganache. Pour and spread evenly over cooled cake.

*Dutch process cocoa, though harder to find, is essential for that deep chocolate flavor. When you use a quality cocoa powder, it makes all the difference between a standard chocolate cake and a gourmet one. Can be purchased online.

Rocket Cake

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Photo credit: my dear sister in law, Sabika Mustafa. Ethics Bowl Champ of NJ!!

My daughter wants to be an astronaut…for now. For the sole purpose of being able to board a rocket and go to the mysterious presence in the night sky. I remember wanting to as well. Then I learned you have to pass a swim test. And psych testing. And you  need a PhD in math/science/engineering (the bachelors did me in).

And the job market doesn’t seem to be too promising for astronauts, since they’re outsourcing it to the machines [insert techno slur]. But she doesn’t know all this just yet. So for now, [CLICHÉ ALERT] she will just have her rocket cake and eat it, too. IMG_2071Planet earth(ish) sugar cookies, pop rocks, and little green men all helped make the space party special!IMG_2066For the inside, I used the classic chocolate cake recipe from Ina Garten (Beatty’s Chocolate Cake), baked in an 11×15 pan for 27 min. Except I did the usual substitution for buttermilk (1 tbsp white vinegar + 1 tbsp less than 1 cup of milk). And since the kids were going to be hopped up on sugar, I used decaf coffee. I’ve been doing  A LOT of reading up on cakes. And there’s no wonder why this recipe has over 1700 rave reviews and counting. There’s:

  • vegetable oil, which is a liquid at room temp, which makes it moist
  • coffee, which compliments the cocoa flavor and also adds moisture
  • acidity from the buttermilk: which tenderizes the flour

And yet with all these liquids, the cake holds up well enough to decorate. I used the guide from Spoonful on how to create a rocket cake. Just remember when you are attaching the “thrusters”, you have to flip cut parts down, and then over, so that the curve faces away from the cake. I added a little extra “flair”  with the leftover scraps (I could have eaten all of them myself, but my pants would hate me for it).

IMG_2037I also made two other cakes: banana cake with dark chocolate ganache for my daughter for the day of her birthday and perfect yellow cake with chocolate buttercream for a friend from college on her 30th (can you tell I’m a big smitten kitchen fan?)!IMG_2010

For the frosting, I used a concoction of my own:

Ingredients

  • 12 oz white chocolate (Ghirardelli)
  • 3 sticks (12 oz) butter, room temp
  • 4 tbsp milk (or as needed)

Directions

  1. Break the chocolate up and add to a  bowl and microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring between each interval, until melted. Do not overheat! Remaining bits of chocolate will melt with the residual heat of the melted chocolate. Just keep stirring! Mine took 90 seconds. Set aside and let cool for 10 minutes.
  2. Whip butter at medium speed for 1 minute. Add cooled chocolate and continue whipping for 2 minutes. Lower the speed and add milk until it reaches spreadable consistency. Tint TINY dabs of food gels to decorate.