Tag Archives: butter

Yellow Cake

by

yellow cakeI love a good Yellow Cake.  It is the de facto cake for many a fine dessert, and if you have a good one, you will rarely find anyone who is willing to complain about it.  A good Yellow Cake is moist, with a delicate crumb and a little spongy.  Ok, technically, it is a sponge cake, or even called a butter cake, but everyone thinks of it as a Yellow Cake.  You know, because of the color.

(If you get a bad one, they are dry, crumbly, and hard to make taste good with anything.  So let’s not make a bad one, ok?)

When we add a simple buttercream frosting, and you cannot go wrong.  Chocolate frosting and you have something wonderful.  Put strawberries and whipped cream on it, and you have something amazing.  Put pastry cream in it, with Chocolate Ganache over the top and you have Boston Cream Pie, which is spectacular.  I’ll put that into another post, because it is really (REALLY) worth doing.

Today, however, is the sublime, delicate, and incredible Yellow Cake.

 

Mix the dry ingredients into a bowl, with a whisk or a fork.  Mix the wet ingredients into a measuring cup.  You can skip the stirring of the wet stuff.

yellow cake yellow cake

Grease and flour your pans.  Cream the sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Add eggs, one at a time, and blend in.

yellow cake yellow cake

Alternatively add dry and wet ingredients in multiple additions, starting and ending with the dry. (You know: dry, wet, dry, wet, dry).

Divide the batter evenly between the two pans.  I use a scale to get them close.  They don’t have to be perfect, but if they are close they will cook evenly.  Once the batter is divided into the pans, use a spatula to spread it out evenly.

yellow cakeyellow cake

Bake them for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.  Once a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs, but not goopy, set them on a wire rack for ten minutes.  Run a knife (plastic knife for non-stick pans!) around the edges and turn onto the wire rack, making sure they are upside down.

yellow cake

Here is the trick to keeping them moist and wonderful.  While they are cooling for the ten minutes in the pan, before you turn them out onto the wire rack, you need to make a simple syrup.  That is heating 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar over heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved.  The photo is of the syrup, with the sugar dissolved.  Ok, maybe not, but it looks the same.

Hollandaise sauce

As soon as the cakes are turned out of the pans, you want to slowly coat the bottoms of the cakes with the syrup.  Spread it evenly, between both cakes.  You can tell that you are going at the right speed when it is soaking in and not beading up, or pouring around to any low spot.

yellow cake

Once all the syrup is soaked in, let the cakes completely cool before you frost them or wrap them up for later.  I find they are even better the next day, so I wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and put them far back on the counter where the little kids don’t play with them, leaving them upside down so gravity can continue to help the syrup distribute through the cake.

yellow cake yellow cake

In case you’re curious, my son helped me frost that cake.

 

Print
Yellow Cake
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2x 9" cake round
 
The divine, sublime, and delicious Yellow Cake
Ingredients
  • ½ lb unsalted butter, room temperature (2 sticks)
  • 2 cups granulated sugar, divided
  • 4 large eggs
  • 3 cups flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • ¼ cup water
  • ¾ Tablespoon lemon juice
  • ¾ cup (minus ¾ Tablespoon) milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

  • Syrup
  • ½ Cup Sugar
  • ½ Cup water

  • Frosting
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Grease and flour 2x 9" round cake pans, lining the bottom with parchment paper, if desired.
  3. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
  4. Combine ¼ C water, lemon juice, milk and vanilla in a measuring cup or separate bowl. Set aside.
  5. Cream butter and 2 Cups granulated sugar in bowl of electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
  6. Blend in eggs, one at a time.
  7. Add dry and wet mixtures to batter, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
  8. Divide batter evenly between pans, smoothing the tops.
  9. Bake 30 - 35 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.
  10. When cakes are done, cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack.
  11. While the cakes are cooling, make the simple syrup: combine ½ Cup granulated sugar and ½ Cup water in small saucepan, stirring over low to medium heat until sugar is dissolved.
  12. Remove cakes from pans and set on wire rack (best to set upside down on rack so that syrup absorbs better).
  13. Spoon simple syrup over cakes, slowly, trying to get even coverage.
  14. Allow cakes to cool completely.

 

Hollandaise Sauce

by

eggs benedictMy wife and I went through a french cooking phase a few years ago.  We couldn’t get enough of it, so we were trying to make everything we thought we would have a chance of succeeding at.  We made crepes, and learned how to properly saute mushrooms, and we figured out how to make amazing sauces.  One of the best, of course, is the Hollandaise Sauce.  it uses many of the same techniques of other sauces, and even though it is not considered a basic sauce like Bechamel (white sauce), it is still very well worth having in your skill set.

And it isn’t nearly as difficult as people think it is, or make it out to be.

And as a side note, you should check out one of the best cookbooks ever written, and a must have for anyone interested in cooking, the classic that made Julia Childs’ famous for her detail and love of the art, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

 

Start by clarifying the butter.  Skip if you bought it already clarified.  The easiest method is to put it in a large measuring cup and microwave it on high for 30 seconds, then check it (do not stir or mix it).  Add another 20 seconds and check each time until the butter is not only melted but has separated into white parts and partially clear parts. (and yes, you can use less butter if you need less sauce).

Hollandaise sauce Hollandaise sauce

Skim the white parts off the top with a spoon, and set the clear parts aside (do not worry about the stuff on the bottom; when it is time to use it, just stop pouring before the stuff on the bottom comes out).

Hollandaise sauce Hollandaise sauce

Make a double boiler by putting about an inch of water into a pan, and a bowl over it, with the bowl not touching the water.  Put egg yokes, lemon juice, water, and salt into the bowl.

Hollandaise sauce Hollandaise sauce

Turn on the heat to a low or medium-low setting, and slowly whisk the eggs mixture.

Hollandaise sauce Hollandaise sauce

Keep whisking it until the eggs thicken a little bit, to the point that you can see the bottom of the bowl after the whisk passes by, and slowly fills back in. This may take 5-10 minutes, depending on how hot you have the stove. Remove from heat, and continue to whisk since the bowl will still be warm.

Hollandaise sauce Hollandaise sauce

Set the bowl on the counter on top of a dish towel so it won’t move around. While still whisking, drizzle in a little bit of the clarified butter, and whisk it in. Continue to drizzle a little bit at a time, as you mix it into the sauce.

Hollandaise sauce Hollandaise sauce

Add all of the butter, slowly whisking it in, but do not add in the white stuff at the bottom of the butter.  If it becomes too thick, finish adding all the butter, then add a half or full tablespoon of water and whisk it in to thin it a little.

Hollandaise sauce Hollandaise sauce

Serve immediately over eggs, fish, or vegetables.  Or over crepes.  Or toast up some English muffins, and add some slightly fried ham and poached eggs, and have Eggs Benedict (which is amazing!)

Hollandaise Sauce eggs benedict

 

 

 

Print
Hollandaise Sauce
Author: 
Recipe type: Sauce
Cuisine: French
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 1 cup
 
Rich creamy buttery and slightly tangy sauce for eggs, fish, or vegetables
Ingredients
  • 1 Cup butter (two sticks), clarified
  • 3 egg yokes
  • 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 Tablespoon water
  • dash of salt
Instructions
  1. Clarify the butter if it isn't already. The easiest method is to put it in a large measuring cup and microwave it on high for 30 seconds, then check it (do not stir or mix it). Add another 20 seconds and check each time until the butter is not only melted but has separated into white parts and partially clear parts. Skim the white parts off the top with a spoon, and set the clear parts aside (do not worry about the stuff on the bottom; when it is time to use it, just stop pouring before the stuff on the bottom comes out).
  2. Make a double boiler by putting about an inch of water into a pan, and a bowl over it, with the bowl not touching the water. Put egg yokes, lemon juice, water, and salt into the bowl. Turn on the heat to a low or medium-low setting, and slowly whisk the eggs mixture. Keep whisking it until the eggs thicken a little bit, to the point that you can see the bottom of the bowl after the whisk passes by, and slowly fills back in. This may take 5-10 minutes, depending on how hot you have the stove. Remove from heat, and continue to whisk since the bowl will still be warm.
  3. Set the bowl on the counter on top of a dish towel so it won't move around. While still whisking, drizzle in a little bit of the clarified butter, and whisk it in. Continue to drizzle a little bit at a time, as you mix it into the sauce. Add all of the butter, slowly whisking it in, but do not add in the white stuff at the bottom of the butter. if the sauce ends up too thick, finish adding all the butter, then add a half or full tablespoon of water and whisk it in thin it a little.
  4. Server immediately, or put back on the pan of water (with the stove off), and stir occasionally.