Gourmet Scientist

Time was up, and I was wavering between anxiety and excitement as I opened the oven door.

As expected, the cake did not rise properly. (Although, another reason may have been my oversized baking pan.) I desperately distracted myself with lunch and other tasks as I waited for the cake to cool. There were indications that the cake was fine besides not rising; but I was still a bit apprehensive as a previous attempt at making a baumkuchen with several critical tools missing resulted in a rubbery flat cylindrical mass. I was praying fervently that the cake would still be salvageable.

I removed the cake from the pan and sliced off an edge. Surprisingly, it tasted quite nice; and indeed, it was moist. Although, the ground almonds seemed to overpower my other flavors.

I decided to make a small cake and several petit fours out of it. For the cake, I stacked two layers to make it higher. I also wanted to bring out the fruit flavor; so I used the opened blueberry jam sitting in my fridge and smeared it between the two layers for the cake and on top for the petit fours. Then came the ganache.

As the ganache had cooled too much, I absent-mindedly stuck it in the microwave (I was also talking with my housemate). Clearly overheated, the emulsification was destroyed, and I was left with the fat oozing out of the solids. I contemplated discarding the mess, but my housemate convinced me otherwise. I resorted to coating my somewhat failed cake and petit fours with the immiscible ganache and placed them in the fridge to set.

I tasted the petit four, and it was okay. Edible, but not ideal, in both flavor and appearance. The separated ganache resulted in a fatty sheen and gooey feel as well as a bittery taste. Oh well...at least I know what not to do next time... All that remains is my friend's verdict...

Baumkuchen

Well, let's begin with the cake I baked over the weekend.

I went through a long hiatus without making desserts, but the desire finally started to rekindle itself. I'd been conversing on and off with a friend about a layer cake that he'd had in Vienna and which he deemed the best cake ever. After extensive description probing and ultimately a picture, I had a pretty good idea what it involved: several layers of cake, each of a different flavor, and a thin outer coat of chocolate ganache that culminated in the texture of moistness and melt-in-your-mouth effect.

But it seemed the tradition was to bake each layer separately. I'd encountered the German Baumkuchen (tree ring cake) where a thin layer of batter was poured, then baked for a few minutes, and the process repeated numerous times. This seemed a possible technique to employ, although I knew it was a risk as I would expose the not-fully baked cake to cold air every time I opened the oven door to pour the next layer. Result? The cake would not rise properly. Reason? The gluten structure would not have been set; and with the sudden drop in temperature, the expanding air bubbles would shrink, and the structure would collapse. But, I still was willing to give it a try.

Yet another problem came when I failed to locate almond paste. So, I decided to substitute it with mashed white potatoes. The consistency was similar, and I somehow recalled my mom saying that one secret to a moist cake was potatoes. I wasn't sure if my memory was correct; but I wanted to try and see what happened.

For the layer flavors, I worked around the materials that I had on hand and came up with strawberry (fresh), chocolate (cocoa powder), and mint (dried herbs). Sandwiching the 3 layers would be a layer each of the original batter.

With all these components settled, I was ready to bake...

After so long, I think I finally may have fallen victim to internet blogging. It was actually the recent chance encounter with Chocolate & Zucchini that inspired this idea. I love anything related to food, and this seemed an appropriate way to document my food musings, whether it’s trying new food products or restaurants, conjuring up bizarre recipe ideas, or analyzing my actual creations. And why “Gourmet Scientist”? Well, “gourmet” represents the food theme while “scientist” reveals the investigative and experimentive approach I frequently take with tasting and cooking food. So, let’s see where my mindless food musings take us…