So what's a girl to do? Cook. Yes, that's the only reasonable solution. Of course, the downside to that is also that I live by myself and working out has also been on the 'no time for that' list. Oh well, there's still plenty of time to accomplish those new year's resolutions!
Onto the cake. I don't think I I've ever made a cake not from a box before so this was new and exciting. After looking through all the possibilities, I chose moist sponge cake. As if there can be a *wrong* choice for cake, right?
Moist Sponge Cake
adapted from Baking by James Peterson
The ingredients were simple enough.
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk or heavy cream
3 tbsp butter
3 whole eggs, warmed
3 egg yolks, warmed
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
3/4 cup cake flour
I used all purpose flour as I couldn't find cake flour. Not sure what difference it would make, maybe one day I'll try again with the cake flour.
You can make this either in a sheet (13x17, preheat to 400) or a round pan (9 inch, preheat to 350)
Combine the vanilla, milk and butter in a sauce pan and melt the butter (I did this step over medium heat)
Meanwhile, combine the eggs and sugar in a stand mixer and mix on high for 5 minutes. Now, most of us don't keep our eggs 'warm' so what's a girl to do? Stick the eggs in hot tap water for 5 minutes. Bingo bango, you've got warm eggs without having to wait very long.
After you've mixed the eggs and sugar for 5 minutes, transfer the mixture to a separate bowl and pour the butter and milk mixture down the side of the bowl and gently fold it into the batter. You can tell you don't want to mix the heck out of the batter since it's so light and fluffy and airy. To mix it a lot would deflate it and that would be no bueno.
Now take the flour, 1/4 cup at a time and sift it into the wet mixture. Unfortunately I don't have a sifter so I just dumped the first quarter cup into the mixture. FAIL. Remmeber how light and fluffy the mixture is? The flour sunk to the bottom (the result of which you will see later). I tried to fold as gently as possibly and added the other two doses by sprinkling it with my fingers. Way better.
Pour this golden, yummy smelling batter into your pan of choice and bake for 12 minutes for a sheet cake and 25 minutes for a round cake.
I will have to say, it turned out very light and fluffy and scrumptious looking. I sliced it in half and low and behold, there were little flour pockets. Drat. That was from the first quarter cup of flour I had added without 'sifting'.
So I decided the next step would be to frost it. I have never made frosting either, but decided on sort of an alternative frosting. A ganache that has been whipped. Now, a ganache is just equal parts chocolate and heavy cream. In this case I used 8 oz of each and used dark chocolate. But you could easily do this with milk or even white chocolate.
Heat the cream until it just starts to bubble and then pour over the chocolate. The milk will melt the chocolate. If you're going for a ganache, you can stop there.
I chose to whip it up to give it a more frosting like texture. I read that you can whip it anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes, depending on the temperature. Be careful not to overmix, or you'll end up with chocolate butter (I think I came dangerously close!)
Then frost away!
The result? Well, I have to say I'll probably go for a traditional frosting next time. The sponge cake is very delicate so the ganache, although whipped, is still very dense and very rich, so all I could really taste is chocolate. Which may not be a bad thing for some of you. But I love balance. So I think I would either do two cakes, or save the ganache for something a little sturdier. Doing a little extra research, I found that with an equal proportion of dark chocolate to cream you get 'truffle dark' ganache "Beaten to a thick and velvety texture for fillings"
Ah ha! no good for frosting, but great for filling. Noted. You live and you learn, right? In the end, no harm, no foul, they were both tasty!
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