Just What I Needed! - Chocolate Pound Cake

February is here. This means random snow, random sunshine, Valentine's Day, and the ultimate: my birthday. Yes, it is a magical month. 

I decided this year's cake had to be just as magical. Also, it needed to be miniature for what I had in store. Yep, the ganache was about to drop in my kitchen. 

Recent trends in cake have shown a drippy styling of ganche over buttercream. I envision just the ganche, no buttercream, poured over a beautiful chocolate cake. This would be a lovely new version of the naked cakes that I love. 

Let me say again, I love naked cakes. My theory of frosting has always been inline with my theory about makeup: it should enhance but not overwhelm. Not that I wear makeup often but when I do it is simple and subtle. I frost in the same manner. 

This is probably why cupcakes and petit fours appeal to me. It is easy to keep it simple which lets you focus on the flavors and texture. Or rather, the simplicity makes you focus on the flavor.

I'm fine with either explanation. 

Anyway, back to my need of a birthday cake. It would be nude and dripping in chocolate! A dream we all have in some variation. 

I searched a few chocolate cake recipes in my cookbooks and on Pinterest. Mix the cocoa powder with oil; combine cocoa powder with flour, blend oil and sugar; oil and cocoa; cocoa and oil... 

Oil in cake bugs me. Unless the recipe is of a flavor that I feel comfortable substituting apple sauce, I avoid the oil cakes. Personal preference but I've always felt the oil cakes to be either heavy or dry.

Butter, now that supports good cake. Again, that's just one woman's opinion. 

Now, as to the chocolate: I want some solid flavor but not overly dense. Cocoa powder always seems to lack impact while melted chocolate tends to cloy. So, I thought a mix of both should be good.

Indeed it is! Chocolate Pound Cake: butter, cocoa power, melted chocolate. Now we're ready. 

The recipe did not disappoint. The cake was fluffy, moist, and flavorful. My spouse claimed it to be the best chocolate cake he's ever had. This is a recipe to hold on to for sure!

I wanted to chase my petit four fantasies with this as well. Petit fours have gained a new name in recent years: mini-cake. I've also seen them referred to as cakelets. This idea seems perfect: a whole cake to myself without all the guilt!



So out came the cookie cutter and my mini-cakes were born! 

 I sliced each one into two layers. Of course these little guys needed filling! For me, orange is a no brainer to pair with chocolate. So orange cream cheese filling was decided. 

While I piped my layer of filling and settled the top layer of cake, I had cream heating on the stove. I had no idea ganache was so simple! Just a half cup of cream heated to a boil then pour over two ounces of chopped chocolate. Let the heat sink into the chocolate for a couple minutes then stir. 

Wow! 

I tried adding orange peel zest to the cream in hopes of infusing the chocolate with the orange flavor. I think I need to try a slow, long simmer for that. Here's hoping for next time.

Chocolate chips were all I had on hand and the ganache turned out quite sweet. A pinch of salt did the trick and I had bittersweet ganache to pour over my cakes. 

This turned out phenomenal! Happy birthday to me!

NOTES: the cake recipe adds water to the cocoa before mixing with the melted chocolate. I want to try with milk next time to see the effect of the different liquids. 

TIPS: be sure you have plenty of parchment paper down to catch ganache that misses cake or drips over. Also, plenty of room to shift the rack so you can scoop said ganache back into the bowl and use it. Watch for cake crumbs that may have come off as the ganache dripped. You should chill the cake to avoid this but I was impatient.

When cutting cake down, first level it. I found a great Wilton video featuring Emily Tatek that shows the simplest approach. I then used the cookie cutter before layering but layering could be done first as well.

Bread: The Other Cake

There comes a point when you just have to wake up and realize "I could be doing more." By this I mean that I've hit the wall for buying things from the store that I can make myself. Plus, when I make it myself then I know exactly what I'm feeding my family.

The first step away from my love for cake will be bread.

Bread is a simple part of life that we all take for granted... at least until the dieting starts. Then it is all about how evil bread is and stay away from it! How dare bread add calories and carbohydrates to my day!!

I think bread gets a raw deal. Keep in mind: carbohydrates produce sugars within the body and you do need these sugars. Bread is a basic commodity made up of starch and basic sugars that are quite easily digested by the body and used to create the multiple forms of glucose that support our metabolism. 

Let me say that more simply: carbohydrates produce the glucose that motivates our metabolism.

So stop hating on bread. Or rather, hate on the highly processed and manufactured bread from the store. The excessive processing of the starches that are used to make bread combined with the additives and preservatives manufacturing companies use to make their bread taste good and keep for an extended period of time are the culprits of bread being deemed bad for us. This version of bread should be consumed in moderation - as in, not five times a day.

When bread is not processed beyond recognition, it is a simple list of ingredients: milk, butter, water and yeast, little bit of sugar, pinch of salt, flour. You can use whole wheat flour instead of all purpose or bread flour. You can also substitute brown sugar for granulated sugar (the reason you want to do this is because brown sugar is more nutritious since it is less processed). Another idea, if you want to go so far, is to get either whole oats or steel cut oats and grind them in a food processor. Add your oat flour to your wheat or white flour and you now have a grain bread.

Now, all that being said, let's circle back: I've decided to make my own bread. 

Before you continue rolling your eyes to the point that you pull a muscle, let me also say that I have made bread before. I know what I am getting into and honestly yeast does not scare me. Also, my family doesn't eat much bread so a very small loaf will easily last us a week without having the straggler pieces that end up moldy and tossed out. 

Given that I had decided this about a week before Super Bowl Sunday, I decided my first round of bread making would be Pretzel Rolls. For some reason, these sounded like a football snack and I thought they would be great for all beef hot dogs. By the way, I am fully aware of the irony in the intent to make my own bread to avoid processed crap yet I fill it with a hot dog. Leave it alone.

So, rolls are pretty standard bread fare in that you put the ingredients together, let it rise, knead, split off into rolls and let rise again. 

Baking Soda and Water Bath

Here's the fun part: to make it a "pretzel" you need to poach to dough ball in a baking soda bath. This was a new process for me and I have to say it did not disappoint!

While you are heating up the baking soda and water bath, the baking soda sizzles long before the water is really even hot. Before you know it, the pot sounds like it is full of seltzer! 

When the bath reaches a full boil, you are ready to poach dough. You'll leave the heat up so that you do not lose your full boil but I did drop mine back just a touch so it would maintain without boiling over.

The effect of the chemical reaction the baking soda brings to the dough is a change in the pH balance on the surface. The exterior of the dough changes and is more gelatinous in nature. This is how pretzels get their brown coloration. The chemical change also is the cause of the pretzel flavor and smell. (Thank you, Alton Brown.)

It is important to focus on this poaching process actually being a chemical reaction. Why? Because you need to be prepared for what is about to happen in your pot and be darn sure you have a large enough pot!

Poaching Dough Balls

I will admit, I walked a fine line with this one! Thank goodness the foam is rather stiff so it continued to grow up and not flow over the pot! This is a 5 quart pot with 1 3/4 quarts of water in it, in case you are curious. 

It was difficult not to lose sight of my little dough balls under all the foam. In between batches of dough balls (you do three at a time) I used my slotted spoon to scoop out some of the foam and transfer it to the sink.

The poaching process exudes a less than fantastic fragrance. Think of it as no different than scrubbing your sink with baking soda. If you have an over the range fan, I strongly suggest you have it set to high.

After the dough balls are poached for about 30 to 60 seconds, you put them on a baking sheet and gash them each a couple times with a serrated knife. This allows for the rolls to expand as they bake. The poached surface, being gelatinous in nature, is no longer very inclined to expand. 

Sprinkle with sea salt and away we go!

Special Notes

The amount of baking soda, the length of time poached and the length of time baked all affect the color of the pretzel. More is darker, less is lighter. 

Keep in mind, more baking soda or a longer poach will also affect the flavor.

These are best eaten the same day they are made. I mean that seriously! The second day they were very dense and the crust was tough.

After poaching, you can let the dough ball cool fully then set in the freezer on a parchment sheet. Once the dough is at least partially frozen, you can store however you want in the freezer. Take a couple out, thaw for about an hour before baking and enjoy!