Although this could shock exactly nobody, once I was a child my finest good friend and I went by way of a part the place we grew to become obsessive about baking desserts. Although the cake creations ranged in taste and dimension, they by no means lacked for 2 parts: buttercream frosting by the bucket and Dunkin Hines “yellow” cake by the layer. (My mom politely requests that I level out that we did the baking at my good friend’s home, and never mine, as my mom would by no means, ever allow using things like baking mixes. She doesn’t child.)
I’m not precisely happy with the cake combine half both, however you see, these desserts actually had nothing to do with consuming and every thing to do with development. Fascinated by desserts with limitless layers, one time we lower the layers so skinny, we have been in a position to make the Layer Cake of Our Goals, six flats of cake every full of a special shade of frosting (crimson, orange, yellow, inexperienced and blue) and coated in purple icing. It was the form of starts-and-hearts-and-glitter-and-omg fantabulous I feel you actually have to be a pre-adolescent lady to understand, and the style, effectively, what did we care. It was purple!
Come to think about it, that may have truly been the final cake we made for lengthy whereas, however I’ve by no means misplaced my love affair with that vaulted, magical device in her mom’s kitchen that introduced our skyscraper cake desires to life: the layer cutter. Ridiculously easy, it entails arched piece of metallic with a wire stretched throughout that may very well be set at certainly one of twenty completely different notch-levels, I had by no means seen such a device earlier than or since hanging out at her home. So, you’ll be able to think about my unparalleled glee when I discovered this very toy on Amazon.com, individuals, and for all of $9.95. It took all of my restraint to not purchase two.
Which form of brings us as much as my present “part”–birthday desserts. Inform me, is there something as splendid as a home made, multi-layered birthday cake replete with gushing bloops and dollops? One thing a couple of large spherical cake in a Plexiglas-domed at all times screams “yay! occasion!” in a method that cupcakes, cookies and brownies by no means do. Doesn’t everybody deserve certainly one of these? I feel so. Thus with my good friend Alexis’ (cough) twenty fifth birthday on Saturday evening, I couldn’t resist making one other favourite childhood cake, a layered strawberry shortcake, easy and contemporary as may very well be.
I struggled a bit, nevertheless, selecting quite a lot of cake that might be gentle in addition to complementary to the celebrities–whipped cream and contemporary strawberries. Pouring over recipe after recipe, the questions stored coming: Did I desire a vanilla foam cake? Maybe a genoise? May angel meals cake be made in something apart from a tube pan? What does dacquoise even style like? I nonetheless don’t know if I made the “excellent” selection–a basic chiffon–however I used to be so enthralled by the Pleasure of Cooking’s story about Harry Baker, a Hollywood insurance coverage salesman, and his invention, the chiffon cake, I couldn’t resist, and also you shouldn’t both. Possibly there’s a greater layer cake on the market, and imagine me I’ve thought of it, however typically you’ve simply bought to go along with the consensus: birthday cake=superior, and that’s actually all there may be to it.
Strawberry Chiffon Shortcake
Tailored from The Pleasure of Cooking
Chiffon desserts are recognized for having the richness of butter pound desserts however the lightness of angel meals desserts. Some argue that it is because they use oil, which as a result of it’s liquid at room temperature, can preserve the cake particularly moist. The oil can’t be changed by butter, sadly, and recipes advise universally in opposition to it. The lemon zest helps compensate for taste misplaced by the shortage of butter.
Though I’d meant the cake as a four-layer, the restrictions of my cake service demanded that I cease at three, and even the middle dollop of that was rudely squished by the dome. To not overwhelm you with my would possibly and could-ofs, listed here are three choices to contemplate earlier than you proceed with the next recipe:
- Make it as I’d initially meant the towering four-layer: Proceed as directed under.
- Make it as pictured, the thick three-layer: Proceed as under to bake a four-layer cake, however stash the fourth layer well-wrapped within the freezer for a future use. (Dare I recommend a whipped cream and strawberry trifle with the opposite remaining substances?) Make solely three-quarters of the whipped cream and use solely one-and-a-half quarts of strawberries.
- Make it as I’d wish to, subsequent time, a slim three-layer: Make solely half the cake recipe, baking it in a single 9″ pan. As soon as cool, take a deep breath, and punctiliously lower this layer into thirds. Proceed with three-quarters of the whipped cream and solely one-and-a-half quarts of strawberries.
Cake layers:
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 cups superfine or common sugar, divided
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chilly water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 massive egg yolks at room temperature
8 massive egg whites at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Filling:
2 cups heavy cream
6 tablespoons confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 quarts strawberries, hulled and sliced (I sliced mine very thinly, however would achieve this extra thickly subsequent time, or double-layer the strawberries so that you just get the next fruit-to-bite ratio.)*
1. Make cake layers: Preheat the oven to 325°F. Have two 9-inch spherical cake pans prepared, lined with parchment paper that has been frivolously sprayed with cooking spray, however in any other case ungreased. (Alternatively, this recipe yields on basic tube chiffon cake. Go away the cake pan ungreased, and use one with a detachable backside.)
2. Sift the flour, 1 1/4 cups sugar, baking powder and salt collectively twice into a big bowl.
3. In a one other bowl, beat the yolks, water, oil, zest and vanilla on excessive pace till easy. Stir into the flour combination till easy. In one other massive bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar till delicate peaks are shaped. Add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, and beat on excessive pace till the peaks are stiff however not dry.
4. Use a rubber spatula to fold one-quarter of the egg whites into the egg yolk combination, then fold within the remaining whites. Achieve this gently, solely till the egg whites are now not seen. Overdoing it’ll deflate the egg whites, and yield a denser, shorter cake.
5. Scrape the batter into the 2 ready pans and unfold evenly. (In case you are needling and fussy, you’ll be able to weigh them to ensure they’re even, one thing I’d by no means do, oh no.) Bake them till the highest springs again when frivolously pressed and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clear 40 to 50 minutes (or 55 to 65 for the tube pan). (Please, do me a favor and examine your cake each 5 minutes or so from the 30 minute mark on, as I confess I by no means wrote down the precise baking time for the 9″ circles, however am fairly positive it was 45 minutes in my oven. M’kay?)
6. Let desserts cool on a cooling rack for a minimum of an hour (or, if in a tube pan, the wrong way up over a bottleneck or resting the pan on 4 glasses for a minimum of 1 1/2 hours). When utterly cool, run a knife across the sides to launch, then flip out onto a plate (or your hand, in the event you’re daring) after which one other plate.
7. Make the whipped cream: Beat heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract in a clear mixing bowl till it holds stiff peaks.
8. Assemble the cake: Fastidiously cut up every cake layer in half, leaving you with 4 cake surfaces. One after the other, scoop one-quarter of the whipped cream onto the floor of the cake and unfold it evenly to the sides, with out going over, with an offset spatula. Prepare one-quarter of the sliced strawberries over the whipped cream in a single or two layers, relying in your desire. (For those who use just one layer, you’ll possible have leftovers.) Repeat with the remaining three layers. When you’ve got any leftover whipped cream, you’ll be able to pipe it decoratively excessive, or, uh, scoop it up with these leftover strawberries. I received’t inform.
9. The cake can refrigerated for a number of hours earlier than consuming it. In reality, as among the moisture from the whipped cream and berries seeps into the cake, I feel the feel is improved.
* Within the feedback, we’ve gotten into one other strategy to the strawberry filling half: macerating them for one hour with a pair tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of both creme de cassis or contemporary lemon juice. This softens the strawberries and creates extra of the saucy selection you’d get in a bakery cake. To create the cake layers this manner, unfold the strawberry combination then the whipped cream over every layer, continuing in any other case as directed above.
