Curling and Cake

This post has nothing to do with hair. We're talking the sport of curling, with the rocks, brooms, and lots of ice. Last weekend two of my favorite people got married. (They made it!) The groom is Canadian, thus in honor of the traditions of the Great White North, the bride readily agreed to my idea of making a grooms cake resembling a curling rock. (The technical term is rock, not stone. I like being technical.)

This cake gave me an opportunity to learn what not to do in many, many aspects of cake making. You can learn them too, if you like.

I started by trying various cake recipes, and I landed on this one, thanks to my sister. I did decrease the sugar by a third, 2 cups instead of 3 cups, but I like less sweetness. I tried it out as cupcakes first and it worked perfectly. When I finally baked the cake, in three 9 inch pans, as the recipe suggests, the cake hardly rose at all and barely touched the sides of the pan. Something didn't work. Undaunted, or maybe a little daunted, I tried again, this time using a little more batter in the pan. It helped, but still didn't get as much lift as I wanted. Maybe 8 inch would work better.

For the filling, I wanted something non-fruit and non-whipped cream, something new, so I decided pastry filling, like what is used in Boston Cream Pie. My friend earned her master's degree in Boston, so I found it fitting. It's a recipe in the Joy of Cooking:

• Beat together until thick and pale yellow 1/3 c sugar, 2 T flour, 2 T cornstarch, and 4 large egg yolks.
• Slowly heat 1 1/3 c milk until simmering, stirring almost constantly.
• Add about 1/3 of the milk mixture, stirring quickly to temper the eggs without cooking them. Then add it all back in the pan, and stirring constantly and scraping the sides, heat on medium low until the mixture is thick.
• Pour into a new bowl and add 3/4 t vanilla. Cover with a layer of plastic or wax paper directly on the mixture. This prevents a non-yummy film from hardening on top of the cream. Cool a bit, then refrigerate for up to 4 days.

The icing is chocolate chips melted in a double boiler, or a non-melting bowl in a pot of simmering water, with a splash of water, and some butter added at the end to make it smooth. This can stay out of the fridge and is really yummy. The red chips were treated the same way, except they were red.

As you can see, the handle is rice crispies treat. My kitchen timer made a useful form to keep the handle up for long enough that it would set.

The set up of the cake was by far the most difficult part. Little did I know that this semi-solid pastry cream would easily melt into a not very pretty mess, leaving a very flat cake behind. Next time, use whipped cream or butter cream icing to make a well for the cream to sit it. I tried this on a second attempt, though my camera had died by then, only to revive later and die again, so I have no pictures of it. It's probably the best part of the story to skip anyway.

I had already tried to dip the handle in the red chocolate, but it wasn't very smooth, so my husband and I decided to try using a blow dryer to heat it enough to smooth it out. It worked beautifully once I decided to stop being so careful and just crank the thing. I hope I didn't scare the semi deaf dog in the process.

For the cake, I dumped a bunch of the warmed chocolate (warmed in a pot of hot water, not with the blow dryer) over the cake which was on a rack, and allowed the chocolate to run all over. It's best to work quickly so the chocolate doesn't harden in the wrong spot or too early. If it does, dip a metal knife or spatula in hot water, dry it, and use the heat from the knife to smooth it out.

With some left overs, I made little curling stones, just for some extra flare. I used straws for the handles. Even they had problems with oozing filling, so the take home is make a well, or maybe just a little hole in the little ones, to keep in the filling!!!

Best part: the gasp of delight bringing it out and the pleasure on the faces of those that enjoyed it. Cake done!