Bread, Pasta, Cake: A Journey: November 2010

The last attempt at a wedding cake was good, just not great. Here is my next version using a non-standard cake recipe, a filling of my own design, a chocolate/coffee frosting, while still making tiers that look similar to a wedding cake.

Findings: taste is good, needs better appearance, reconsider white frosting and fresh flowers and ribbon to replace chocolate frosting for actual wedding cake.

Details:
The filling consisted of Rocotti cheese, cream cheese, powered sugar, and cream.
The frosting consisted of chocolate, coffee, butter, and powdered sugar.
In each of the cake layers where I sliced and added filling, I added small amounts of chocolate chips and dried cranberries.
I used a cream cheese pound cake recipe from http://www.joyofbaking.com/CreamCheesePoundCake.html (See chart below).
I did not use a bundt pan, but instead used two 8x2-inches pans and two 10x2-inch pans.

	Egg	t	T	Oz	C	Total (Cups)	Cream Cheese Pound Cake:
Flour					3	3	3 cups (390 grams) all purpose flour	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Butter and flour a 10 inch (25 cm) bundt pan.
Baking Powder		0.5				0.01	1 teaspoons baking powder	In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Baking Soda		0.5				0.01	1/2 teaspoon baking soda	In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar, in three additions, beating well after each addition.
Salt		0.5				0.01	1/2 teaspoon salt	Continue beating on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 3 - 5 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla and lemon zest and beat until incorporated.
Butter					1.5	1.5	1 1/2 cups (340 grams) (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature	Add the flour mixture and mix just until incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
Cream Cheese				8		1	1-8 ounce (226 grams) package cream cheese, room temperature	Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
P. Sugar					3	3	3 cups (600 grams) superfine or castor sugar	Remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and cool completely.
Eggs	6					1.5	6 large eggs, room temperature	(The cake is cooled in the pan first for about 20 minutes so the cake has time to set. The cake may collapse if you try to remove it from the pan too soon.)
Vanilla			1			0.06	1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract	This cake will keep several days at room temperature and one week when refrigerated. Can also be frozen.
Lemon Zest						0	Zest of a lemon or orange	Serves 10 - 12 people.
Total Cups per Batch						10.09
# Pans	Pan Sizes
	6	8	10	12	14	16	18	Inches
1	2.5	3	6	8	15	22	24	Cups
2	5	6	12	16	30	44	48	Cups


General Mills Purasnow Cake Flour (8.2% protein)

Powdered sugar escaping the mixing bowl and Sticking to the Cabinet

After the cake was baked and cooled, I sliced open the layers and added filling, then placed the layers back in the pans and put filling between the layers, covered tightly with with plastic wrap, and placed in the freezer for 2 days (see smallest tier left of bowl in background). To assemble, I unwrapped the first tier, placed on the serving plate, and frosted.