MangiaMore: ALMOND sheet cake with flour frosting

RER 2.18.17

This year, I didn’t make anything red for Valentine’s Day, even though I usually like to (linzer cookies, mini red velvet cheesecakes, red velvet brownies, and red velvet sandwich cookies). I didn’t even make my Valentine’s Day treat on Valentine’s Day proper. Instead, my sweet (for my sweet) was stark white and made the weekend following the holiday. But as I always say: Everyday is Valentine’s Day.

My Valentine’s Day landed on a Saturday, and my obsession and curiosity about sheet cakes (pumpkin cake and yellow cake) continued with a beaut that I found on Food52. After searching for an almond cake (first layered, then sheet), I landed on this Almond Sheet Cake. The photo alone was enough to make me crave this cake—those wisps of cloudlike white frosting looked killer. Plus, I’ve never made a flour frosting (or boiled buttercream or ermine frosting, whatever you want to call it). So I made it…

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I pulsed my slivered almonds in my food processor-slash-blender.

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I played around with sunlight and almonds on my kind of counter.

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I whisked my dry ingredients.

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I creamed my butter, added my eggs one at a time, and I incorporated my almond extract (probably more than called for).

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I alternated my milk and dry ingredients, but I did not keep track of how many additions or where I started.

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I stirred in my homemade almond “flour” and poured the pretty batter in my cake pan.

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I checked my cake one too few times, and maybe even let it cook a second too long.

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I simmered flour and milk and sugar on the front burner, afraid to burn what was becoming my sweetening agent for that pillowy-looking, cloudlike frosting.

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I beat my butter longer than I ever had with almond extract and Disaronno. I (with the aid of my sister) added heaping tablespoons of my cooled boiled base one at a time until my frosting was fluffy, white, and billowing.

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I plopped the frosting on top of my cooled cake. It looked like a mound of meringue and just as sweet.  I made swoops and swirls, layered it on thick, hoping my cake would be half as pretty as the cake in the picture.

My cake did not turn out like fudgy yellow cake that gets stuck to the roof of your mouth; mine was of a drier, more mature variety. It crumbled with toothy almond bite, contrasted with the light-as-air sweet semblance of whipped cream. Delicious and adult…

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Too bad I have indulged more than the receiver of this sweet Valentine’s Day sweet. jk.

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2.14.17

RER 2.18.17

MangiaMore: mini RED VELVET cheesecakes

RER 2.13.16

Valentine’s Day already feels like a thing of the past; buried deep in nostalgia, underneath lesson prep, parent teacher student conferences, and Poe. But it was a sweet thing. A stuffed puppy hidden in my bag and a box of chocolates to be nibbled. A night of homemade pizza and recorded television and peppermint patties. A moment that came and went far too quickly and was hardly relished due to long hours and sad losses.

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As in the past, I made an edible gift for my beau. This time, I went for mini red velvet cheesecakes inspired by Sally’s Baking Addiction. These little confections looked fun and they are a blend of things that my love loves most.

Anything red velvet has instant appeal. And red is a Valentine’s Day given. Cheesecake is divisive: sweet and tangy, smooth, creamy, voluptuous, sensual. So these smaller versions of a classic favorite definitely fit the bill.

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While piling the enchanting red cookie dough into the bottom of the lined tin, I was elated, stunned by the perfect color and taste of the amalgamation. With the cookie bases in the oven and the sweet smells of chocolate, sugar, and butter, pervading the kitchen, I whipped up the cheesecake topping adding that requisite dollop of thick Greek yogurt. Hardly cooked dough served as the foundation for a fat scoop of almost white cheesecake, which made a plopping noise on the pliable surface. Plop, swoop, spread… they were in the oven, complete and beautiful.

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And then, the trouble began. The cheesecake part took longer than expected to firm from a spreadable mixture to a bouncy texture. With each additional moment in the oven, the chocolate aroma intensified and deepened to discomfort. Those pretty red cookie crusts deepened to dark dense scarlet. They were overdone and crunchy, making the proportions of cookie to cheesecake overwhelming and out of touch.

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The mini cheesecakes tasted ok, but they were not what I was dreaming about. They were not the gift I wanted to give. My too-done treats involved too much crunch and not enough creaminess. There was, however, the pleasant play of sweet and tangy, chocolate and butter. All was not lost. Every experience is a learning experience. There’s always next year.

Hope you all had a happy Valentine’s Day, too!

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2.13.16

RER 2.13.16