Not that this involves any of the eggs, but here are two of the ice creams I made for the party. The lemon buttermilk sherbet is amazing. A wonderful lemony flavor with just a bit of tang from the buttermilk. Creamy and relatively light. The chocolate ice cream is really an ice milk, made with Lactaid milk for one of my friends and a copious amount of cocoa. The cocoa is dense enough and a large enough portion of the flavor that if I make it again I am going to cut it with something. A smidge of coffee or a hint of mint or orange. And I will use something of better quality than Hersheys. This was not the time to stint.
I also made grape sorbet. Surprisingly easy and refreshing, I could see this technique used for a large number of fruit desserts where it is permissable to use the whole fruit. In this case about 3.5 pounds of grapes, a smidge of water, a tiny amount of vodka, and some light corn syrup. I'm pretty sure it would work fine with agave nectar as well. Any old liquid sugar without an overbearing flavor profile.
Outside of the ice cream, this was also a weekend of cake. Glorious, delicious cake. But I'm biased. Maybe it was just mediocre.
I made the Chocolate Wedlock cake (mousse was posted earlier) and I made the Best Birthday Cake from smitten kitchen.
The Best Birthday Cake I made first on Thursday. Four eggs down the drain, because either I forgot a critical 2 tablespoons of flour or I didn't let it cool long enough. Either way, the cake split diagonally down the middle and instead I have ingredients for trifle. My second attempt at the cake on Sunday went much, much better.
Chocolate Wedlock is definitely a tried and true recipe for me. I have used this recipe to make cupcakes, tester wedding cake, and a couple of wedding cakes for friends. It never looks stunning, but that is the fault of the decorator and in no way reflects on its deliciousness.
The process of making Chocolate Wedlock looks complicated, the cookbook is very good at breaking down all of the steps. I grated chocolate (Vahlrona, yummy!) while the plain Wedlock cupcakes were in the oven, and when everything was cool, I made the frosting.
I just have to say I hate this frosting. I won't make it again. The white chocolate buttercream needs the ganache as far as I can tell in order to not melt off of your baked goods. At the party the following day, the frosting and the raspberries decorating the cupcakes slid onto the dryer (off and cool to the touch) that I was using as a food staging area. For my money and slightly less sweetness, any standard buttercream would do. There is a point where stability is an asset.
The last cake I made was for my friend who took the bar at the end of July. Yup, day late on my part, but I was trying to make the cake look like a chocolate bar.
This is the best birthday cake with the chocolate sourcream frosting. Tasty. I used some of the leftover chocolate mousse as a layer between the two halves of the cake. I added confectioners sugar to the remaining frosting and used it to make a concoction thick enough to retain its shape when piped.
My big mistake here was not using a coupler with the bag. If I had, I would have swapped out one of my smaller tips to make the lines around the word a bit less thick.
I did try to pipe the frosting, freeze it and then move it over. That might have worked with straight chocolate, but it definitely did not work here. Boo. At least the reject was tasty!
