4.28.2008

We were really hummin'

This weekend's cake-- provisionally titled Deadbeat Club Cake-- comes primarily from Camille Glenn's The Heritage of Southern Cooking. My little 6" layers of yellow cake fit on a single rack.


Instead of the orange filling Glenn recommends, I opted for a layer of coffee pastry cream, mostly using Dorie Greenspan's recipe-- instead of adding coffee at the end, I steeped roughly ground beans in the hot milk, a trick I learned from Daniel Boulud's Cafe Boulud Cookbook which, after all, is co-written by Greenspan.

The finished cake will appear as soon as I snap a decent photo.

5 comments:

tooknap press said...

glorious! I love the steeping trick, & have been employing it for ganaches so my favorite teas can become my favorite fillings. And I'm all about the pastry cream this week, in little tiny tartlets. little tiny anythings: my hand reached for 6 inch cake pans last week, but ended up clutching a fistful of miniature vessels instead. that's best, for now.

Erk said...

The roughly ground coffee-- whirled in a food processor, not a proper grinder-- leaves pretty little flecks of bean in the milk after straining. This method also lets me use locally roasted and decaf beans. I recognize the usefulness of instant coffee in some instances but prefer to avoid it if possible. I forgot about teas. Will employ teas in the future.

Yours in miniature vessels,

tooknap press said...

"Deadbeat Club" makes me well up a little bit, and for some reason, reminds me of the adorable little graveyard outside of Foss 4, and Kenny's leather jacket with the tassels. Am I jealous of Southerners? Where did Kenneth grow up?

tooknap press said...

Oh, and instant coffee is totally for suckers, although I did use medaglia d'oro instant espresso powder for a coffee ganache and it was perfection.

Erk said...

Kenneth's family is all from Blount County in Tennessee-- the county next to the one where yours truly grew up. While he was born in east TN, he grew up in Nashville. 100% S O U T H E R N E R !