A blend of British design and American textures resulted in this delicious mini-orange cake with dark chocolate ganache filling |
There are some very good shows
spotlighting baking in the UK, not the least of which is the Great British Bake
off hosted by noted white thumbs, Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry. (I did not make
up those names.)
Mini-sandwich tin with straight sides and, you should pardon the expression, removable bottoms |
One thing I noticed was the oft-used mini sandwich tin. It
resembles a muffin pan but has straight sides and removable bottoms. Its most
popular use seems to be the mini-Victorian Sponge cake, a little yellow cake
split in half then layered with clotted cream and strawberry jam. I made a
batch almost immediately and liked the clever idea of tucking the frosting
inside the mini-cake. Certainly this could translate to my American recipes.
I have a great fondness for
orange and chocolate together and have had some success with Cook’s Country’s “Kiss Me Cake” recipe.
It’s an unbelievably moist orange sheet cake that uses all parts of the fruit:
zest, juice, pith, pulp and rind. Everything but the oink. A dark chocolate
blend in the middle would be - as they say here - scrummy (short for
scrumptious).
The entire orange goes into the batter - including the rind |
Years ago I made a delicious
ganache from Cook’s Illustrated’s “Ultimate
Chocolate Cupcakes” recipe. Since that recipe only made a dozen cupcakes, I
doubled the ganache recipe here just in case. No one wants to run out of ganache.
Ever.
Making the ganache with cream so thick it's almost chewy. |
The mini cakes baked up perfectly
and once cooked, gladly welcomed their chocolate filling. They tasted as good
as I hoped with the two flavors working together without getting into a brawl. And since they’re just a bite of cake you can eat
on the go without the fuss of a fork, I’m calling them Kiss Me Quicks.
The little orange cakes baked up lovely. I drizzled an orange syrup on them while still hot then sprinkled a ground walnut and cinnamon topping for added flavor and texture |
My attempt at marrying two baking
cultures was not discouraging. Room for
improvement? Always. Ideas for next time? I have some things knocking around. Can’t talk now. Eating.
My Kiss Me Quick |
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