A Visiting Cake!

This cake is called a 'Swedish Visiting Cake'.  And, yes, I made it almost exclusively for the name. 

Well, that and the fact that the Bicoastal Chef from the East Coast paid me a visit out here in the West.

This cake is very simple: the flavor base is lemon, vanilla, and almonds.  Unlike far too many dry cakes I make, this cake is delightfully moist.  And topped with a nice layer of crunchy almonds.

And, did I mention you can make it with one bowl and mix it together in approximately 5 minutes.  Yes, it is a wonder cake.  Thank you, Dorie Greenspan.

Start by rubbing the sugar together and lemon zest.
 
Next, add in the eggs.  Then add the salt, vanilla extract, and almond extract.

Then, stir in the flour. 

And, last stir in the melted butter (yup, melted, so you don't have to allow for time for it to come to room temp).

Pour the batter into a buttered (and floured) 9 inch pan (cake pan, cast-iron skillet, pie plate... whatever you have).

Scatter some sliced almonds of top.
 
Pop it in the oven and 30 minutes later you have a wonderful little cake on your hands.

The cake may be a bit hard to get out of the pan, so don't be afraid to serve it straight from the pan.

And, enjoy this lovely way to let your visitors know how delighted you are that they have come to see you!

Swedish Visiting Cake (from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours)
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar, plus a little more for sprinkling
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (optional)
1/2 tsp pure almond extract (optional)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 stick (8 tablespoons) melted butter
About 1/4 cup sliced almonds [next time, I will up it to 1/3-1/2 cup, I loved this part]

Directions:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a seasoned 9-inch cast iron skillet or 9-inch round cake pan or pie pan.

Pour the sugar into a medium bowl.  Add the lemon zest and blend the zest into the sugar with your fingers until the sugar is moist and aromatic.  Whisk in the eggs one at a time.  Whisk in the salt and the extracts, if you're using them [which you should!].  Switch to a rubber spatula and stir in the flour.  Finally, fold in the melted butter.

Scrape the batter into the skillet/pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.  Scatter the sliced almonds over the top and sprinkle with a little sugar.  If you're using a cake pan or pie pan, place the pan on a baking sheet.

Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes, or until it is golden and a little crisp on the outside; the inside will remain moist.  Remove the skillet from the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes, then run a thin knife around the sides and bottom of the cake to loosen it.  You can serve the cake, warm or cooled, directly from the skillet or turn out onto a serving place.

Serves 8-10

My Own Raspberry Layer Cake with Chocolate Ganache Frosting

When I search for a recipe on google, which gets no exact hits, just those hits google thinks 'you might have meant instead', I get worried.  Maybe everyone in the 'know' knows it would be a terrible idea.  Maybe those flavors just don't mix.  Maybe I misspelled 'cake'.

But, it turns out, sometimes I have ideas.  Ideas people haven't written thousands of recipes for.  Ideas that actually come from me and my culinary self. 

Like: Raspberry Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Now, I know what you are thinking: of course recipes for this exist out there.  Let my testify: you will find armloads of recipes for Chocolate-Raspberry Cake (like this one I did last year), or recipes for Raspberry Torte, or all the kind of cupcakes your heart could desire.  But, listen up google, while I love chocolate based cakes, I wanted something lighter, and while I love tortes, they aren't layer-y, celebration-y enough, and though I'm somewhat fond of cupcakes, they can never ever replace a cake.  What I really wanted was a layer cake, where the layers were raspberry cake and the frosting was dark chocolate.

So, I, much to my chagrin, had to come up with a recipe... of my own.  By which I mean, I pieced together and tweaked other recipes, but still, I felt pretty triumphant by the end.

For the cake layers, I took my cue from a three-layer strawberry cake (thank you, smittenkitchen).  But, it was a small crowd (and a small oven), so I slimmed it down to two layers, and swapped out the strawberries for the raspberries.

Before the steps, here's a tip.  If you don't happen to have 'cake flour', you can make your own.  Just mix 7/8 cup of regular flour and 1/8 cup cornstarch.  And instantly you have 1 cup of cake flour.

After you whisk together the dry ingredients, its time to put together some raspberry puree.  If you are smart (which I was not) you will use a 12 ounce bag of *defrosted* raspberries to get 1 cup of raspberry puree.  Do not attempt this with (a) frozen raspberries (you can't get them through a sieve)

or (b) 1 cup of frozen raspberries (you will never ever get 1 cup of sieved puree from that).

Unlike a lot of cakes, where you begin by creaming your butter and your sugar, for this one, you just throw the butter and raspberry puree in with the dry ingredients from the outset.

But, come on, how charming is the color of this batter?

I couldn't get over it.

Next, beat up some egg whites with milk.  Then, fold some of those eggs whites into the batter, to lighten it up.

Fold in the rest of the egg whites in 2 more additions.

Pour into two butter and parchment-ed cake pans.

Bake for about 30 minutes.

Let rest and turn out after 10-15 minutes.  Let cool for at least an hour, and then you can frost away.  Unlike last time I attempted to frost a cake (and did so with the elegance of a 5 year old),
this time, I surrounded the bottom of the plate with parchment, which I could then drip onto all I wanted, and remove when I was done.

It worked great.

Garnish with some raspberries.

And, this is important, while the cake will be...
 
...very good without extra, fresh raspberries...

...if you serve it with even more raspberries, it will be perfect.  Really, the extra bites of fresh raspberries brings out the somewhat subtle raspberry flavor in the cake itself.  So, they are a must.

 There you have it: my very own Raspberry Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting.

Raspberry Layer Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache Frosting (adapted from smittenkitchen)
For the cake*:
Ingredients:
3 cups cake flour**
2 cups sugar
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup pureed raspberries (passed through a sieve)***
5 extra large egg whites****
1/4 cup + 3 Tablespoons milk
Fresh raspberries

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350.  Butter two 9-inch round cake pans.  Line with parchment and butter the paper.

But the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixer bowl.  Whisk together.  Add the butter and raspberry puree.  Mix to blend the ingredients.  Raise the speed to medium, beat until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.

In another large bowl, whisk together the egg whites and milk.*****  Add the whites to the batter in three additions, scraping the sides of the bowl well and mixing only to incorporate after each addition.  Pour the batter into the prepared pans.

Bake for 30-34 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.  Allow the layers to cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes.  Invert and turn onto wire racks and peel off the paper.  Let stand until completely cooled before assembling the cake, at least an hour.

For the dark chocolate ganache frosting (I've used this before)
Ingredients:******
8 ounces fine-quality semi-sweet chocolate1/2 cup heavy cream (aka heavy whipping cream)
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon light corn syrup
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions:
Finely chop chocolate. In a small sauce pan, bring cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over moderately low heat, whisking until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, whisking until chocolate is melted. Cut butter into pieces and add to frosting, whisking until smooth.

Transfer frosting to a bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, until spreadable (30-40 minutes).

Frost the cake, garnishing with fresh raspberries.  Serve with more fresh raspberries.


*I did two layers for this cake, but if you want to do three, follow the smittenkitchen's measurements
**If you don't have cake flour, substitute 7/8 cup all-purpose flour and 1/8 cup cornstarch for 1 cup of cake flour
***I used 12 ounces of frozen raspberries, pureed them in a food processor, and then pressed them through a sieve to remove the seeds.
****Technically, it should be 5 1/3 egg whites, so I attempted to add 1/3 of an egg white, but you might be fine if you just did 5.
*****I'm not quite sure how much you are supposed to whisk the egg whites.  I'm sure soft peaks would be fine, but I just went for really very frothy.
******This makes some extra frosting

Chocolate Layer Cake with Raspberry Filling and Ganache Frosting

It turns out frosting a cake takes some skills. Skills I apparently do not have.
It also turns out if you are a disaster of a froster, chocolate-raspberry rapture makes up for a multitude of sins.
But, since I am confessing, I might as well also admit that this cake isn't even remotely level. After I took the cake layers out of their pans, I felt like I had started to play that game called 'which one of these things...
Is not like the others?'
Yep, when I placed/shoved all three pans into my not-meant-to-hold-3-cake-pans oven, one accidentally went up on the lip of my baking rack.

But, listen, even if you frost a crooked cake like a 4-year old, it will be okay as long as the cake is to die for. Which this one absolutely, positively was. The cake itself is moist, and the chocolate flavor is deep, nuanced, but not too sweet. And, oh the raspberry filling. It is so bright, and matches the chocolate perfectly. This cake is probably the best I have ever made.

So, here's to making poorly-frosted, crooked cakes, that can still turn out wonderful.

To make this cake, you start by chopping up some dark chocolate. Make sure it is good quality. I like to use around 70%.
In the meantime, brew some coffee. Combining coffee with the chocolate doesn't actually make things taste like coffee; instead, it amplifies the chocolate taste.
And, combine the chocolate with the coffee. Try not to drink it.
Now, sift together your dry ingredients: sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.
In a separate bowl, beat three eggs until they are lemon colored and slightly thickened.
Add some oil, buttermilk, and vanilla to the eggs. Then add in the dry ingredients.
Mix until just combined.
Get the batter into three 9-inch cake pans. And, just fyi, it is completely acceptable to use a 9-inch spring-form pan if you don't have 3 regular cake pans. Good to know, right?
Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean, and your house smells like heaven.
Let those cook completely in the pan on a rack. Then, time to remove the layers. Mine came out just fine.
Well, they came out of the pan just fine. The crookedness, well, there is not fix for that.

Now, if you want, you can wrap these layers up in cling-wrap for a day before you assemble the cake. When you are ready to assemble, start with the raspberry filling. Whaz up some defrosted frozen raspberries in a food processor. Then, press those through a strainer.
This should remove the seeds, and leave you with a gorgeous raspberry liquid.
Bring the liquid to a boil, with some sugar and cornstarch. Remove from the heat, and let cool completely.
In addition to the lovely raspberry filling, you need to make a ganache. So, chop up some more chocolate. And, in a small sauce pan, whisk together heavy whipping cream (aka heavy cream), sugar, and light corn syrup. Bring that to a boil.
Remove from the heat and whisk in the chocolate. Then whisk in the butter.
At the end, you should have a gorgeous, shiny ganache. But, you should refrigerator it for about 30-40 minutes to get it to spreadable consistency.
Then, time to assemble! And, fair warning, if you think this will take 15 minutes, try more like 45. Will I ever learn to estimate these things correctly? Start with a cake layer.
Add some raspberry filling.
You are *supposed* to do it only within a 1/4 inch of the edge to prevent it from spilling over the edge when you put the other layers on top. As you can see, I did not pay attention to this direction.
Time for more raspberry filling.
Add the last cake layer.
Then frost. Or at least make an embarrassing attempt. Smoothing it over a few times can 'help'.
I garnished mine with some raspberries on the top.
It looks better from the aerial view.
Now you can chill it for up to 3 days before bringing it back up to room temperature to serve it. But, if you were able to resist this,
I would be worried. Why ever would you keep something this wonderful from yourself?

Chocolate Layer Cake with Raspberry Filling (adapted from epicurious and smittenkitchen)
Ingredients:
For cake layers:
3 ounces fine-quality semi-sweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all purposed flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
3/4 tsp vanilla

For ganache frosting:
8 ounces fine-quality semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream (aka heavy whipping cream)
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon light corn syrup
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

For raspberry filling:
20 ounces frozen raspberries, defrosted
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch

Directions:
Make cake layers:
Preheat oven to 300. Grease 3 9-inch cake pans* and line bottoms with parchment paper.

Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl, with an electric mixer beat eggs until thickened lightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes, with a good handmixer or stand-mixer). Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to the eggs. Beat until well combined. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined. Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a test inserted in the center comes out clear, about 45 minutes.

Cool layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove parchment. Cake layers may be made 1 day ahead and kept, wrapped well in plastic wrap at room temperature.**

Make frosting:
Finely chop chocolate. In a small sauce pan, bring cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over moderately low heat, whisking until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, whisking until chocolate is melted. Cut butter into pieces and add to frosting, whisking until smooth.

Transfer frosting to a bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, until spreadable.***

Make raspberry filling:
Puree raspberries in a food processor. Press through a fine mesh strainer with the back of a spoon, removing seeds. Heat in a small sauce pan with sugar and cornstarch, until it boils, stirring occasionally.

Cool completely before spreading thinly over layers.

Assemble cake:
Spread a thin layer of raspberry filling between each layer, and spread the frosting over the top and sides. Cake keeps, covered and chilled, 3 days. Bring up to room temperature before serving.

*Both epicuious and smittenkitchen have you use 2 10-inch cake pans, which I don't have. But, as long as you adjust the baking time to 45 minutes, 3 9-inch cakes pans (or springform pans) work just fine.
**My cake layers were a little bit delicate. They never split in two, but I had to be careful when maneuvering them.
***I chilled my for 45 minutes, which was a tad too long. Try 30 minutes and check.