Congratulations Christie! You’ll be receiving CakeLove in the mail shortly. Thank you to everyone for participating and be sure to stay tuned! There are more giveaways in the works.

If after reading Monday’s post you now desperately want your chance to dive right into the cake baking world of Warren Brown then you’re in luck!  I’m giving away a copy of CakeLove to one Erin Cooks reader.  All you have to do is leave a comment on this post (one comment per person please).  A winner will be selected via the nifty random number generator this Friday (May, 23rd) at noon and than I’ll promptly ship the cookbook to your home.  Get your aprons ready!

UPDATE:  Don’t forget!  You have until Noon (EST) on May 23 to enter the contest to win your very own copy of CakeLove.  Simply follow this link and leave a comment.  It couldn’t be easier.

You may be familiar with Warren Brown from reruns of his show Sugar Rush on the Food Network, or perhaps if you’re lucky enough to reside in D.C. you might have had the pleasure of sampling some of his creations and original recipes at one of his highly regarded CakeLove bakeries. For those of us living outside of personal shopping distance you’re in luck as Warren has recently released a gorgeous cookbook dedicated to the art of making some of his most popular CakeLove recipes.

I don’t use the term “art” loosely.  These cake are involved masterpieces.  Don’t be lulled into complacency by the brightly colored layout and upbeat color schemes.  The pages of this book may be designed to imply simplicity and ease but in reality this cookbook is more boot camp than day camp.   Ok…so the boot camp might be run by Vin Diesel’s character in The Disney movie The Pacifier, and not a four star general, but these recipes still mean business and attention to detail is key.

Fortunately, Brown gives you all of the tools to succeed including very detailed recipe instructions, step-by-step images when appropriate, and helpful tips and tricks.  But in the end it’s all up to you.  Thanks to jaw dropping photography and tantalizing recipe options like Stout Pound Cake with Roasted Pecans, Tres Leches Butter Cake, and Hazelnut Spice Sponge Cake your body will no doubt go into pure craving mode, and the ambition to taste one of these fanciful creations will give you all the motivation you’ll need to power through the recipe.

After examining the cookbook I decided to attempt the decidedly Summer appropriate Mojito Pound Cake.  To answer your burning question, yes, it really does taste like a Mojito!  Actually it tastes like a great Mojito, not one of those ghastly drinks you get from a hurried bartender because they think you’re a jerk for ordering one in the middle of a rush, but a carefully made, simple syrup, and mint muddled Mojito that makes you sit back and say, “Ahhhhh…”

In all seriousness though, I can’t believe I made this cake and I definitely couldn’t have done it without this amazingly thorough text.  There’s nothing semi-homemade about these recipes.  They’re all butter, flour, cream, and eggs through and through.   Sure they take a little more time and effort but the quality and taste of a cake made from scratch isn’t even in the same league as your basic boxed Betty Crocker.

Mojito Pound Cake with Rum-Flavored Italian Meringue Buttercream (Based on the recipe originally published in CakeLove: How to Bake Cakes from Scratch by Warren Brown)

Dry
2 1/4 cups + 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup potato starch
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 whole cloves (ground into a fine powder)
1/3 cup oven dried mint crumbled

Liquid
2/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup half-and-half
3 tablespoons dark rum
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon molasses
1 teaspoon limoncello
1 lime outer rind removed and segmented

Creaming
2 sticks room temperature unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups extra-fine granulated sugar
2 teaspoons lime zest
4 large eggs
2 large egg yolks

Note:  The actual recipe, including notes is three pages long.  Below is my condensed version.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Incorporated all of the dry ingredients into a bowl, whisk briefly,  and set aside. Incorporated all of the liquid ingredients into a bowl, whisk briefly,  and set aside.  Measure the butter, sugar, eggs, and yolks into separate bowls and set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer (fitted with the paddle attachment) cream together the butter, sugar, and lime zest on the lowest setting for 4 to 5 minutes.

With the mixer still on the lowest speed, add the eggs one at a time followed by the yolks, fully incorporating after each addition.

Add the dry ingredient mixture, alternating with the liquid mixture in 3 to 5 additions each, beginning and ending with the dry mixture.  Move swiftly through this step to avoid overworking the batter.  Don’t wait for the dry or liquid mixtures to be fully incorporated before adding the next.  This step should take a total of about 60 seconds.

Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl (don’t miss the clumps of ingredients hiding on the bottom of the bowl).  Mix on medium speed for 15 to 20 seconds to develop the batters structure.

Prepare the cake pans.  For 9-inch-round cakes, line the bottom of each pan with parchment.  Note:  The recipe says not to spray the pans with cooking spray, but I did.  I wasn’t willing to take any chances on this cake sticking to the pan.  Deposit the batter evenly into the pans and smooth out with an offset spatula, making sure the pans are two-thirds full.  Bake for approximately 30 minutes.  Note:  My cakes took about 35 minutes.

Remove the pans from the oven and cool to room temperature on a wire rack, about 25 to 30 minutes before removing from the pan.  Loosen the cake gently from the pan with a small offset spatula and invert onto a flat surface.  Remove the parchment from the bottom of each cake and wrap the layers tightly in plastic.  You can refrigerate the layers overnight or up to 5 days before frosting.  Note:  I’m very impatient and only left my layers in the fridge for 2 hours.  It seemed to work fine for me!

Rum-Flavored Italian Meringue Buttercream

5 egg whites
1 1/4 cups extra-fine granulated sugar
1/4 cup cold water
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter
2 to 4 tablespoons of dark rum (to taste)

Set out the ingredients and the equipment.

Separate the egg whites into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the wire whip attachment.  Measure 1 cup sugar and the water into a 1-quart, heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Gently stir with the candy thermometer to combine.  Place the remaining 1/4 cup sugar into a small bowl and set aside.  Cut the butter into tablespoon sized pieces and set aside in a medium bowl.

To make the sugar syrup, place the candy thermometer in the saucepan and heat the mixture over medium-high heat.  Partially cover with a lid to capture the evaporating water-this helps to moisten the sides of the saucepan to prevent sugar crystals from forming.

With the mixer on high speed, begin whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks.  When the peaks are stiff you have a meringue.  Keep the mixer running and pour the 1/4 cup of sugar into the meringue.

Raise the heat under the sugar syrup to bring the syrup to 245 degrees, if it is not there already.  When the syrup is at 245 degrees, remove the thermometer and slowly pour the syrup into the meringue.

After 1 or 2 minutes reduce the mixer speed to medium for 3 or 4 minutes, or until the meringue is cooled.  Add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time.  Increase the mixer speed to high for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the butter is fully incorporated.   Finally add in the dark rum and spread onto your pound cake.  Decorate as desired.   Note:  I used fresh mint and Turbinado sugar.

My Diane Mott Davidson re-creation of the recipe for Double Shot Chocolate Cake just won 2nd place in the Bittersweet Baking contest! I’m very happy with the result. I don’t think I’ve ever tried so hard to make something both look and taste as perfect as possible. Since I’m the 2nd runner up, do you suppose I can still get that espresso machine if the winner fails to fulfill their Queen of Baking duties…or you know, takes some overly sexy cupcake images? I kid…I kid… Now I will anxiously await my “handsome reward.” Who wants to come over for fancy machine made coffee?

When I was a kid I would get so excited if the bunch of bananas my mother brought home from the grocery store had a Chiquita Banana sticker. I’d quickly pluck it off the fruit and pat it proudly onto my shirt. Unfortunately these days my bananas always tend to go bad. Even so, I continue to buy them almost weekly, and inevitably after eating one from the bunch the rest sit on the counter until the skins turn. Then I either make banana bread, throw them out, or stash them in the freezer (well wrapped of course) until I feel the urge for muffins.

Today when I noticed that my once perky yellow bunch had become a little too brown for for my taste I decided it was time to break out of the banana bread and muffin rut and update my overripe repertoire. A hunt for a recipe to use ensued and as per usual the internet didn’t let me down. This recipe yields a moist, fluffy, and sweet cake that goes perfectly with cream cheese frosting, while a dusting of chopped walnuts adds a nice crunch. Even though cake isn’t supposedly a suitable breakfast item I’m certain we’ll be sneaking bites with our morning pot of coffee. This recipe also proves that a “boring old sheet cake” can actually be mighty impressive if given the chance.

Got Bananas?	Mash
Pour & Bake	Eat Bananas Every Day!

Best Ever Banana Cake (Slightly altered (See items in bold below). The original recipe may be found at Recipezaar)
3/4 cup butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas

Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 275.°
Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.
In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice; set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, spices, and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 tsp vanilla.
Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
Stir in banana mixture.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for one hour (Note: My cake took almost 90 minutes to bake) or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
Cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.
Beat in 1 tsp vanilla.
Add icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth.
Spread on cooled cake. Sprinkle chopped walnuts over top of the frosting, if desired.

You know how sometimes you’ll find a recipe and really want to make it, but then you start reading the ingredients list and the instructions and it will slowly dawn on you that you’re missing EVERYTHING and there isn’t possibly anyway you could “fudge it” (so to speak). Well that’s what happened to me when I read the recipe for Double Shot Cake. I knew I couldn’t possibly do Diane Mott Davidson’s devilish dessert justice, when I didn’t have a double boiler, parchment paper, or a ten inch cake pan. So I made the horrifying decision to go to the mall–on a Saturday.

My cake baking journey took me to three stores and drained my wallet of about a hundred dollars. It’s my own fault. I’m a cookware snob and I only wanted the All-Clad double boiler insert for my four quart saucepan. They finally had it at Williams-Sonoma. Next, on my list was a cake pan. For some bizarre reason, Davidson wants us to use a ten inch cake pan. Frankly I thought this sized pan was as mythical as a unicorn, until once again I found a set at Williams-Sonoma. Are you sensing a pattern here? I rounded out my ridiculously frivolous purchases with parchment paper. The moral of the story is obviously to always start at Williams-Sonoma.

Note: I entered this pricey concoction in The Kitchn’s “Bittersweet Baking Contest.” Wish me luck!

Line & Butter	The Double Boiler Earns Its Keep
Foamy Eggs	Triple Sifted
Unintentional Yin & Yang	Stir it All Together
Fill	Set Into a Water Bath Very Carefully & Bake

Double Shot Chocolate Cake (Originally published by Diane Mott Davidson in her novel Double Shot)

10 ounces unsalted butter
10 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken into small pieces (recommended brand: Godiva dark)
3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons extra-fine granulated sugar
2 tablespoons Dutch-style cocoa (recommended brand: Hershey’s Premium European-Style)
8 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Butter a 10-by-1 1/2-inch heavy-duty round cake pan. Line the bottom with parchment cut to fit. Butter the parchment. Set aside.

Fill a 16-by-11-inch roasting pan with 1 inch of hot water, place the roasting pan on a baking sheet, and put it into the oven.

In the top of a double boiler, melt the butter with the chocolate. When the ingredients are melted, remove the pan from the heat to cool slightly. Sift the sugar with the cocoa twice, then whisk it into the melted chocolate mixture.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs until they are foamy. Add the vanilla and the chocolate mixture. Blend with a spatula until very well mixed.

Carefully pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Gently place the cake pan in the water-filled roasting pan.

Bake about 40 to 50 minutes, or until the cake begins to shrink slightly from the sides and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place on a rack to cool for 15 minutes, then invert carefully and peel off the paper. Allow to cool completely.

Serve with sweetened whipped cream, best quality vanilla ice cream, or my awesome Espresso Whipped Cream (see recipe below).

Erin’s Espresso Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon very finely ground espresso beans

Combine cream, sugar, vanilla, and espresso and beat until soft peaks form. Try not to eat it directly from the bowl. It’s going to be difficult.