German chocolate cake (p. 719) and Coconut pecan filling (p. 759)

Fans, I know a lot of you are a bit hard-hearted and particularly like stories of TJOTJOC related disaster. You will be in for a real treat with this post.

I went to my father's house with the express intent of learning how to can and to do some canning, since that is a portion of the book in which I'm spectacularly behind. Dad took the day off of work for this endeavor, since my puppy was used to being left alone for that time, my mom wouldn't have to watch him, and he wouldn't be hassling us or causing destruction in dad's house. Unfortunately, he had to pick up my stepmother around 5 pm, so we started the day with a deadline.

And dad surprised me with a request. Since it was my brother's birthday, we should make him a cake! Of course, the cake had to be made with stuff that he either had on hand or could be easily bought in the tiny grocery store of his town. We settled (rather hilariously without asking the birthday boy) on German chocolate cake (p. 719). The decision to make a cake stressed me out because it limited our timeline even more. I was trying to fly through making the cake.

Of course, the little store didn't have cake flour (mistake 1 or M1) so we just used all-purpose flour (which he refused to sift [M2]), which was combined with baking soda and salt. In another bowl, baking chocolate was finely chopped (chop it VERY finely since you aren't heating it) and mixed with boiling water, with vanilla added once the chocolate was melted. In a third bowl, dad was supposed to beat butter until creamy and slowly add in sugar and egg yolks, which were added one at a time:



As you can see, buttermilk was being held in a measuring cup, as TJOC specified. On low speed, the chocolate was added to the sugar/egg mixture until incorporated. The flour mixture was added in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk, which was added in two parts (so it went flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour):



The batter was actually looking pretty good at this point.

In another bowl, with clean beaters, Dad beat the egg whites with cream of tartar until they were stiff.



A third of the egg whites were folded in to the batter:



And when that was incorporated, the rest of the egg whites were folded in:


He totally forgot to add sugar (M3), which was supposed to be mixed in to the egg whites. It had to be folded in at this point (which I don't think really worked).

Dad poured the batter into pans before I noticed what he was doing. Instead of using three pans, he used two (M4). I knew that was going to be a problem, because when the pans are the wrong size, the batter tends not to cook correctly:




Because the cakes were baked in the wrong size pan, they had a number of problems. By the time the middle was cooked, the edges were overcooked. They overflowed the pan, which caused a layering problem. And they didn't come neatly out of the pan:



I had made the frosting earlier. Obviously, we chose Coconut pecan filling (p. 759), the traditional filling of German chocolate cake.

I combined sugar, heavy cream, egg yolks, and butter in a saucepan:



I cooked it over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture was thickened:



I then mixed in coconut and chopped pecans. Dad didn't have enough pecans, so like is so common in my family, we used a mixture of pecans and walnuts (M5).



The frosting actually looked good and tasted delicious. It had the perfect combination of caramelized sugar, coconut, and pecan flavors...perfection. I will use this recipe again. Of course, it was here another problem occurred (M6). I left the pot on a burner since it was finished but not needed yet. While heating up some water, dad flipped on the wrong burner. Guess which burner got flipped on? Of course, it was the burner with the frosting. We figured it out once the overwhelming stench of burning sugar came wafting through the air. Thankfully, just the bottom was burned and the rest of the frosting was salvageable (there wasn't enough coconut for another batch).

Honestly, tell me this isn't the ugliest cake you've ever seen?



I decided not to embarrass my brother by taking a picture of him with this monstrosity.

Apparently, the sides of German chocolate cake are supposed to be left unfrosted. Believe it or not, it was actually pretty good! The cake was dry (to be expected by the mishandling of the ingredients and the cake pan problem) but had a nice flavor and the frosting was actually pretty tasty (miraculously, not burnt tasting). Frankly, if the cake could make it through all those mistakes and not be absolutely terrible, I recommend the recipe, because if you make it correctly it should be awesome! My brother was a good sport about the whole thing.

Even the candles were sad:



They melted wax all over the cake so you had to pick around the wax while eating (final mistake). You can see how crumbly it was--that's from overbaking the cake due to the wrong pan size.

I hope some of you can add stories of cakes gone wrong.

Random facts:
German chocolate cake has absolutely nothing to do with Germany. Apparently Sam German, who was an American, worked for Baker's Chocolate and developed a type of dark baking chocolate. Baker's named their sweet chocolate after him. So it was Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate. A baker developed the cake in the 50's, calling it German's Chocolate Cake. Somewhere along the line the possessive got dropped (Wikipedia). So German chocolate cake has nothing to do with Germany. A new fact for you to share at your next dinner party!


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Peanut butter pie (p. 684) and Chocolate ganache glaze or frosting (p. 795)

My brother-in-law had requested a pecan pie for his college graduation party but I figured there are no events in which extra dessert was unwelcome, so I would make an extra pie. Mom only had a single pie crust left so I flipped through TJOC reading aloud to my mom and Josh all the single crust pie recipes. They were only interested in one--Peanut butter pie (p. 684)

Peanut butter pie may be one of the most fattening, sinful recipes I've ever seen.

I mixed cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl until smoothly blended:



In another bowl I whipped cold heavy cream until stiff peaks formed:



I folded half of the whipped cream in to the peanut butter mixture to "lighten it":



Eventually I worked the rest of the whipped cream in to the peanut butter (be prepared, this step seems to take forever):



I poured it into my prepared crust (which had been baked):



I pressed a sheet of plastic wrap over the top and refrigerated it for about four hours. In the meantime I made Chocolate ganache glaze or frosting (p. 795). I heated heavy cream in a small saucepan until it came to a boil:



I added finely chopped semisweet and bittersweet chocolate to the cream (it was a mixture of both since that's what I had on hand):



I stirred until most of the chocolate was melted and then covered the pot and let it stand for 10 minutes:



I brought the chocolate to a boil (again) and then allowed it to cool to lukewarm. I poured the glaze over the pie and sprinkled chopped salted peanuts over the top:



If your arteries don't feel quite clogged enough, TJOC recommends topping the whole thing with a dollop of whipped cream.

The inside:



This was an incredibly decadent cake. It was silky, smooth, and delicious. The slightly bitter chocolate cut through the sweetness of the peanut butter and the peanuts lent a nice crunchy bite to the creaminess of the cake. It was a hit with absolutely everyone at the party. It also seemed like an expensive cake, bought rather than homemade. This is a good choice for a party that isn't particularly formal but one at which you wish to impress people.

Random facts:

• Wikipedia says that the word "ganache" is from the French word for jowl. That seems extremely strange. On Food and Cooking's assertion that it is from the French word for cushion makes much more sense (p. 707).

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Shortbread crust (p. 667), New York-style cheesecake (p. 744), Chocolate satin frosting (p. 796), and Fresh raspberry sauce (raspberry coulis)(p. 853)

I love cheesecake. Absolutely love it. I even remember my first experience with cheesecake--I was about five years old and visiting my aunt in New York. We went to a high-end restaurant in Manhattan and I ordered the cheesecake. The rest is history. I spent years selecting cheesecakes at every restaurant I went to (usually instead of a meal). I remember eating at The Cheesecake Factory when they were still cool and made their cheesecakes in-house, before they had a 100 page menu complete with ads. But I haven't made my own cheesecake for years (although I have three sizes of springform pans).

When I saw that the Shortbread crust (p. 667) was an option on the randomized list, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to make a New York-style cheesecake (p. 744). "New York" refers to the cooking method--extremely high heat followed by low heat.

Readers know that my main problem with baking recently has been the high altitude--I was hoping it wouldn't affect the cheesecake.

I made both recipes concurrently. The crust was easy. Flour, sugar, a little lemon zest, and a bit of salt were whisked together. A stick of butter was then mixed in. I used my pastry blender to mash it until it resembled coarse crumbs and then added an egg yolk.



The recipe asked for a nine inch pan. I only had a 8.5" and 9.5" pan. I decided that the smaller pan would be easier to fit in the refrigerator, so that's the one I used. I patted a third of the dough into the pan and then baked it.



The bottom crust came out beautifully!



The sides were then patted into the pan, making sure that the bottom crust was connected to the side crust. I realized as I was patting the crust that I didn't rebutter the pan--the recipe didn't call for it but I was really hoping that the sides wouldn't stick to the pan.



The cheesecake recipe was actually really easy. I took five packages of cream cheese (the expensive part of the recipe) and beat them until they are fluffy, then mixed in some sugar and flour (necessary if you want a denser texture, which I did). I then added in a little lemon zest (thank god for the microplane!) and vanilla, followed by five large eggs and two more yolks, one at a time. Finally, some heavy cream. Easy!

There are some important points to keep in mind--the ingredients should be room temperature because if they aren't you will probably end up overbeating the batter.



I poured the cheesecake into the crust. There was extra filling that I threw away, which is horrifying, but I didn't want to overfill the crust and didn't have a little pan.



The cake was baked for 15 minutes at FIVE HUNDRED DEGREES FAHRENHEIT. You might wonder why I capitalized that--it is such an enormously high temperature that you have to capitalize it. My stovetop was smoking. Then you lower the temperature to 200 degrees for an hour. Finally, the oven was turned off and the oven door was propped open (easy if you have an electric oven, more difficult if you have a gas oven) for another half hour.



The cake was capital letter BEAUTIFUL! It wasn't caved in the middle, it wasn't cracked, it was perfection.



I cooled it overnight in the refrigerator and popped the springform off--perfection! The crust looked beautiful! It didn't stick at all!




The inside--terrific.




I know you are impressed--as you should be :) The cheesecake was creamy and flavorful. The texture was perfect--creamy but not like a Jello cake, dry but not too dry. The crust was amazing and I usually cut the crust off--like a thin cookie on the bottom of the cake. I loved it. I would make this again but for a bigger crowd than the two of us (we are eating a LOT of cheesecake).

But what is a cheesecake without toppings?? I made two.

First, Chocolate satin frosting (p. 796). I only made a half batch of this because I knew I didn't need the full three cups. A half cup of heavy cream was boiled in a small saucepan. Three ounces of unsweetened chocolate were then added (but not stirred in) and the pot was left off heat for exactly ten minutes.




When it was done, I added the chocolate mixture to sugar, butter, and vanilla.



And then processed until it was smooth.



Parts of it were a little gritty (probably because of the sugar) but the flavor was really good. It wasn't bitter (I don't like dark chocolate) and was really smooth. When I melted it, it was pourable. When it cooled it was the consistency of frosting. TJOC recommends smearing it on graham crackers--that would be absolutely delicious, especially with a marshmallow or two.

I also decided to make a fruit topping, specifically Fresh raspberry sauce (raspberry coulis) (p. 853). There are four coulis recipes in TJOC, which is hilarious because they are all exactly the same. Add a pint of fruit, some sugar, and a little lemon juice, and blend:



Strain (if need--this step is in the raspberry and blueberry recipes but not the strawberry or mango).



And it's done! You can probably tell that I used a half pint blackberries and a half pint raspberries (because that's what was on hand).




Incredibly delicious! An intense berry flavor, no seeds, a perfect compliment to the cheesecake. I will definitely make this again because it was so easy. It would be really good on ice cream too.

Caramel Cupcakes (p. 738) , Quick Caramel Cake (722), and Caramel Icing (p. 792)

I'm going to do something I never do...I'm going to post these two posts as today and yesterday even though I cooked them weeks ago. Why? (I'm editing these to show that they were made weeks ago--I hate falsifying blog posts!). After I spent the whole day cooking (the dishes in these two posts) I started feeling absolutely terrible. And that is how I've been since and how I feel still. I have had more tests and specialist appointments in the last two and a half weeks then you could imagine. Apparently, it's either my kidneys or my gallbladder but the problem isn't solved yet and I can't stand for long enough to cook (and I was doing so well!). How am I going to do Thanksgiving? That's something for Percoset and I to worry about but it WILL happen. Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays for a LOT of TJOC recipes to get knocked out!


I decided to make cupcakes and thought I would try TJOC's baking recipes out again. As many of you know, I typically love baking, but I don't love baking at high altitude.

Looking over the cupcakes I decided to make Caramel Cupcakes (p. 738) which means that I have also made the Quick Caramel Cake (p. 722) because it's the exact same recipe (remember, sometimes TJOC reads like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure novel). Compounding this is the fact that the QCC tells you to make the Lightning Cake (p. 722) using brown sugar instead of white sugar and add nuts. So really, by making the one recipe, you have cooked through three of the recipes.

Everything should be at room temperature, so I set out the milk, eggs, and butter, and let them warm to room temperature.




This is a one-bowl cake so the dry ingredients (cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) are added and then the eggs, milk, and vanilla are added to the same bowl.




I don't know why I wasn't using my Kitchenaide but I used a hand mixer for the recipe. Next, the butter is mixed in. I adjusted everything in this recipe--I used more flour and milk and less sugar and baking powder, although it's still a bit of a crapshoot when it comes to adjusting for altitude.





The batter is beat for a while.



I folded in some chopped pecans at this point.

And the batter is dolloped into the cupcake pans!







On to the icing...the recipe recommends Caramel Icing (p. 792). Reading the recipe I realized that this is pretty much candy, so bring out the candy thermometer!

First step, combine brown sugar and heavy cream and stir, over heat, until dissolved. Cook until about 240 degrees. It already looked like caramel to me!

It goes from this:





To this:



Angry! As always with candy, DON'T STIR IT!

Remove it from the heat and float butter on the top. Then cool until 110 degrees.




This takes forever, so be prepared.




Eventually, it's cool enough. Add some vanilla and beat until cool, thick, and creamy (very vague, I hate directions like this). I beat it until it looked like this:



At this point, the butter was not soaking in at all. I've never made caramel's...is it normal for the butter to just leak around the candy? And if so, what's the point of adding it?

And the cupcakes are frosted!



How were they? First off, ugly. These cupcakes are not attractive, so don't make them for the annual bakesale. The cake part tasted like a fat cookie and the icing was more or less candy. So if you like big cookies frosted with candy, these are TOTALLY the cupcakes for you.