Partied out...
I attended and cooked for two different birthday parties this past Saturday: liritsvoice's and seaya's.
For seaya's party, I made White Chocolate and Lime Cheesecake Bars, Tres Leches Cake (per seaya's specific request), and Zesty Wheat Berry-Black Bean Chili. liritsvoice got Lemon Mousse Chocolate Brownies, Blueberry Cake, and Raspberries and Cream Cake from CookWise.
I cooked a bit every night from Wednesday through Friday, and also on Saturday afternoon. It was, however, worth it. I've made the chili before, and it was as good as usual. (It had four chipotle peppers which had been canned in adobo sauce. Lizard ate one and declared it delicious.) Of the new items, I liked the blueberry cake and brownies the best. The cake was perfect--just the right balance of sweet and fruity. The brownies were rich but very tasty. The cheesecake bars were decent, but not particularly outstanding, as was the raspberry and cream cake. The latter would have been a bit better if I'd remembered to add the Chambord to the raspberries. I wasn't a huge fan of the tres leches cake, but seaya really liked it, so that's what's important. I also suspect it might grow on me, so I'll give it another couple of tries.
I took a picture of seaya's cake:
And since the recipe isn't online anywhere, I give you:
Raspberries and Cream Cake
- Cake:
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 cups cake flour (174 grams)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 pound unsalted butter (1 stick), slightly below room temperature
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 3 large egg yolks, room temperature
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- Mascarpone Cream
- 1 cup mascarpone
- 4 tablespoons honey
- 2 cups whipping cream
- 2 (10 oz) packages frozen raspberries, defrosted but not drained
- 3 tablespoons Chambord
- 1/2 pint fresh raspberries (optional)
- Measure sugar and place in freezer. Place mixer bowl and whisk in freezer. Allow to chill for about 20 minutes
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Grease and flour a 9"x2" round cake pan.
- Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together
- Mix together buttermilk and vanilla.
- Cream together butter and sugar. Beat for 3-4 minutes, then add eggs and yolks one at a time, beating for about 30 seconds between each.
- Remove from mixer and stir in the oil. Fold in half of the flour mixture, then half the buttermilk, then the remaining flour, then the remaining buttermilk.
- Pour into pan and bake about 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Allow to cool completely.
- Freeze mixer bowl and whisk for 5 minutes.
- Whisk together mascarpone and honey.
- Whip the cream to soft peaks.
- Fold the mascarpone mixture into the whipped cream.
- Chill until ready to use.
- Stir the Chambord into the raspberries.
- Slice the cake horizontally into three layers.
- NB: My cake was nowhere near thick enough for three layers. I cut it into two layers. (And did so rather poorly; the top layer was too thin and fell apart a bit. I should have used Alton Brown's method...)
- NB2: Alton Brown's approach to slicing cake is to put the cake on a lazy susan and cut into it with a bread knife while rotating the lazy susan. This is a good way to ensure the cut is straight and even.
- Place the bottom layer on the serving dish.
- Spoon half the raspberries and liquid into the cake. Top with one quarter of the cream.
- Place the middle cake layer on top, then spoon on the remaining raspberries and liquid. Top with another quarter of the cream.
- Place the top cake layer on the stack. Frost with the remaining cream.
- Refrigerate for 2-24 hours.
- Top with fresh raspberries, if desired.
As I said, it was good, just not as good as I think it would have been if I'd remembered the Chambord.