The Buckeye Stops Here
Mar. 11th, 2018 02:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerThis week's Resolution Recipe: Buckeye Cake.
Cake
2 cups sugar
2 1/4 cups cake flour
3/4 cup dark cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp espresso powder (The wife refuses)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 large eggses
3/4 cup vegetable oil (I used 1/2 cup, which was plenty)
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup water
Filling
3 cups 2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup + 2 Tbsp (10.5 oz) peanut butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp (4.5 oz) milk
Icing
6 oz bittersweet chocolate
3 oz cream
1 oz corn syrup
Heat the oven to 350. Lightly grease two rectangular celebration pans.*
Whisk together the cake dry ingredients. Add the eggses, oil, and vanilla, beating until smooth. Gradually add the water, beating until smooth.
Pour 1/4 of the batter into each of the prepared cake pans (you'll be baking a total of four layers in two batches); about 12 oz per pan. Bake the cakes for 18-20 minutes, until the center is set. Cool the cakes in the pans for 10-15 minutes, then turn them out onto a parchment-lined cooling rack. Clean the pans and repeat with the remaining batter.
Filling: mix the sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla until crumbly. Add the milk and mix until smooth, adding more milk or sugar if necessary to make a stiff yet spreadable filling.
Place one cake layer on a serving plate, and spread with 1/3 of the filling. Repeat with the next two layers and top with the final cake layer.
Icing:Combine all in a measuring cup and microwave until the cream is hot and the chocolate is soft. Stir until the mixture is smooth. Since I don't have a microwave, heat the cream and chocolate over medium-low heat, stirring, until the chocolate melts and the cream is starting to bubble around the edges. Stir in the corn syrup.
Spread the icing atop the cake.
What worked: It was showy and a far cry from our usual homeowners' meeting dessert. Cutting the sugar (and using 75% cacao in the icing) meant that it wasn't jaw-rottingly sweet. The cake itself was very good: not too sweet, moist, and a good chocolate cake base.
Having weight measures for some of the less-easily-measured ingredients such as peanut butter worked well. I baked regular-size cake layers for 35 minutes, which was fine.
What didn't: Eh, it was a fair amount of work for just being okay. (Granted, I had a lot of nervous energy to burn off after bringing the cat home from the emergency room.) My layers and filling were not consistent - Mary Berry would say that it was "a bit of a mess."
It didn't hit my happy place. I'd have liked it better if the filling was, say, whipped creme fraiche with raspberry jam.
Will I make it again? Doubtful.
* A celebration pan is a half-height cake pan. So that you don't have to slice a cake in half but have two more-likely-equal layers. Actually a brilliant idea, but I'm never going to buy them.
Cake
2 cups sugar
2 1/4 cups cake flour
3/4 cup dark cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 large eggses
3/4 cup vegetable oil (I used 1/2 cup, which was plenty)
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup water
Filling
1 cup + 2 Tbsp (10.5 oz) peanut butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp (4.5 oz) milk
Icing
6 oz bittersweet chocolate
3 oz cream
1 oz corn syrup
Heat the oven to 350. Lightly grease two rectangular celebration pans.*
Whisk together the cake dry ingredients. Add the eggses, oil, and vanilla, beating until smooth. Gradually add the water, beating until smooth.
Pour 1/4 of the batter into each of the prepared cake pans (you'll be baking a total of four layers in two batches); about 12 oz per pan. Bake the cakes for 18-20 minutes, until the center is set. Cool the cakes in the pans for 10-15 minutes, then turn them out onto a parchment-lined cooling rack. Clean the pans and repeat with the remaining batter.
Filling: mix the sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla until crumbly. Add the milk and mix until smooth, adding more milk or sugar if necessary to make a stiff yet spreadable filling.
Place one cake layer on a serving plate, and spread with 1/3 of the filling. Repeat with the next two layers and top with the final cake layer.
Icing:
Spread the icing atop the cake.
What worked: It was showy and a far cry from our usual homeowners' meeting dessert. Cutting the sugar (and using 75% cacao in the icing) meant that it wasn't jaw-rottingly sweet. The cake itself was very good: not too sweet, moist, and a good chocolate cake base.
Having weight measures for some of the less-easily-measured ingredients such as peanut butter worked well. I baked regular-size cake layers for 35 minutes, which was fine.
What didn't: Eh, it was a fair amount of work for just being okay. (Granted, I had a lot of nervous energy to burn off after bringing the cat home from the emergency room.) My layers and filling were not consistent - Mary Berry would say that it was "a bit of a mess."
It didn't hit my happy place. I'd have liked it better if the filling was, say, whipped creme fraiche with raspberry jam.
Will I make it again? Doubtful.
* A celebration pan is a half-height cake pan. So that you don't have to slice a cake in half but have two more-likely-equal layers. Actually a brilliant idea, but I'm never going to buy them.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-15 05:58 am (UTC)