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I think that yellow butter cakes (edit), buttermilk cakes, and devil’s food cakes should play larger parts in my life. For all their moist sweetness, I have a hard time finding them among the dense chocolate cakes and light sponge cakes on offer at bakeries and markets. If they are available, they’re often made with shortening or hydrogenated oils… and I like to trust butter (and certain oils) in my cakes.

So, I have to make them at home, and decided that they could easily be cupcakes, and even very little cakes. As much as I like cupcakes, even they are a bit to large for when I just want a bite… that turns into two… Just two.

This was an experiment to see how bite size cakes would fare in the oven and with icing… and to eat…

They turned out great. I think that the size and shape of food effects the flavor somehow, and I liked how every bite of these has just a touch of a slightly crisp edge, moist cake, and sweet frosting. It was a very hot day, though, so the icing was a bit loose and I decided to live with that instead of adding yet more powdered sugar. I think that they are best either drizzled with frosting or lightly covered completely, but I’d want to play around with that more.

I also thought about the mignardise we made in our class. Although we made some very good mignardise, I couldn’t think of a better way to finish off a meal than with my very own very little cake (or maybe two. Just two). And yes, all the piping homework has influenced me — I just couldn’t resist the dominoes.

I used silicone molds that look something like this, fortuitously handed down to me from my mother. I just baked them at 350, and checked them until they were light brown on one edge, then rotated them, and then checked them until they sprung back when lightly poked in the center. I let them completely cool before unmolding them by peeling away the mold.

I also can’t recommend Flo Braker’s Devil’s Food Cake recipe below enough (or her thorough book, for that matter). It was so moist and light and perfectly cake-y, and it stayed that way for a week, at least.

I used these recipes from Billy’s Bakery in New York City for the vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream (I halved the recipe, and it was fine). I thought they were both delicious, with a great use and balance of the vanilla flavor. I used my Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Bean Paste in both, so that probably had something to do with the final flavor. Incidentally, I like the paste b/c you can see the vanilla seeds in the final product, and for the flavor; the only drawback is that it’s thick, so it has to be scraped or mixed into other ingredients to get it all off the spoon.

Oh, and I also made the vanilla batter twice, b/c I unknowingly had skim milk instead of whole milk. But I also had cream. So, I did half cream and half skim milk, resolved to call it yet another experiment before I went out to get whole milk. Fat-wise, this would mean about 48 grams of fat from the cream in the full recipe — versus 4 grams from whole milk. BUT the cream cupcakes were so good. They had a looser crumb with bigger air bubbles and a slightly bumpy exterior, but they were so light, and tasted creamy. The top two cupcakes here were made with cream.

Devil’s Food Cake

adapted from Flo Braker’s The Simple Art of Perfect Baking.

Yield: one 9 x 13 x 2 1/4 inch cake pan, or two 8″ round cake pans, or however much you can fit into multiple small molds

• 2 cups (200 grams) sifted cake flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (50 grams) unsifted cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup (4 oz) lukewarm water
• 1/2 cup (4 oz) buttermilk, room temp
• 1/2 cup (4 oz) water
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 large eggs, room temp, whisked to loosen
• 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
• 1 cup (200 grams) sugar
• 1 cup (200 grams) light brown sugar, packed

Preheat the oven to 350. If using silicon molds: spray with baking spray. If using cake pans: grease with butter, dust with flour, shake to distribute evenly, tap out excess (a couple gentle bangs onto the counter will loosen the excess well), and insert parchment circle on bottom.

Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Pour lukewarm water over cocoa powder in a medium bowl. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
Pour buttermilk, 1/2 cup water, and vanilla into liquid cup measure. Set aside to cool.

With paddle, cream butter on med speed in a mixer for 30-45 seconds, until smooth and light in color. Reduce to low, and add sugars in a steady stream. When all sugar is added, stop the machine, and scrape the bowl and paddle. Continue to mix on med, and cream until light and fluffy — about 6-7 minutes.

With machine running, slowly add eggs in 2-3 additions; wait for mixture to fully combine before each addition (the goal of this step is to maintain the emulsified batter; if it looks curdled, stop adding eggs, stop machine and scrape, and then briefly mix on med-high or high until it smoothes out).

Continue to cream, scraping as necessary, until mixture appears fluffy and velvety and has increased in volume (this process, including adding the eggs, takes about one minute).

Stop the machine, and add cooled cocoa mixture. Resume at med speed and mix until just incorporated. Detach the beater and bowl, scraping the beater for batter.

Using rubber spatula, stir in 1/4 of flour mixture. Then add 1/3 of buttermilk mixture, stirring to blend together. Repeat until flour and buttermilk are incorporated.

Pour batter into prepared pan(s). For 9×13 cake, bake for 40-42 minutes; for 8″ round, bake 22-25 mins; for mini molds, bake 10 mins and check until done. For all of these, I rotate the pan once one side has been browned, and they are done when I can press the middle and it springs back. Just be careful not to press too hard or too early, or the impression will be permanent. I don’t use a skewer anymore.

If using cake pans, let cool 5-10 mins, then unmold, wearing mitts if necessary. Let cool on rack, top-side up, until completely cool.

If using silicone molds, let cool completely before unmolding.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006 at 11:05 pm and is filed under Highly Recommended, Recipes - Dessert. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.