CAKE, COUTURE & CIE

Here's a quick and easy recipe for those of you looking to dirty as few pans as possible. I found this recipe in last week's St. Louis Post Dispatch's food section. I had some apples in the crisper and part of a liter of buttermilk that was a few days away from expiring, so falling upon this recipe was perfect timing.

This cake was a hit and tasted as good as it looks. With its warm, caramelized apples, it reminded me a bit of a Tarte Tatin with a cake underside instead of crust.

Here's the recipe provided in the newspaper. If you don't have a food processor, I'm sure a hand-held pastry blender would probably work just as well, while giving you a workout at the same time!

Upside-Down Apple Cake

Adapted from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 9 December 2009

Yield: 6 large servings

8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, divided

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3 apples, peeled, cored and sliced

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup honey (locally harvested if possible)

1/2 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet. Stir in brown sugar. When melted, spread evenly across the bottom of the skillet. Arrange apple slices in overlapping circles over the butter-sugar mixture.

2. In a food processor, pulse together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Cut remaining 5 tablespoons butter into chunks; add to processor. Pulse until butter is cut into small pieces and well distributed. Drizzle in honey. With motor running, slowly add buttermilk through the feed tube, processing until dough forms.

3. Using a spoon, drop batter evenly over apples. Spread dough into an even layer, stopping just short of the edges of the pan.

4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center of the cake portion comes out clean.

5. Place the skillet on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the cake. Use pot holders to handle the skillet, which will still be hot. Place a plate on top of the skillet, and invert. Lift skillet straight up, releasing cake.

In September I decided to join the "Daring Bakers" subset of the Daring Kitchen. Members agree to make a recipe ("challenge") each month and blog about it afterwards on the reveal date, which is always the 27th for the Daring Bakers. The 2009 October Daring Bakers' challenge was brought to us by Ami S. of the Baking Without Fear blog. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming's The Last Course: The Desserts from the Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Living in France, it's hard to avoid macarons (not that you would want to!). Among the most well-known créateurs de macarons are Ladurée and Pierre Hermé, but you can also find them at your local corner bakery or boxed and frozen at the supermarket. On most days, I can even buy some at the café on the ground floor of the building where I work.

I was actually thrilled when I discovered this month's challenge recipe. I'd been wanting to try my hand at making macarons for a long time but just never got around to it. I ended up making two batches. I split the first batch in two and tinted the batter with food coloring paste (orange and brown in an attempt to mimic Fall's colors -- in reality they turned out more peach and beige, yet pretty nonetheless). For the second batch, I skipped the coloring and mixed in finely ground espresso beans. I filled both with a chocolate-espresso ganache.

Anyone who has tried to make macarons knows that they are tricky. And as you can see from the pictures, these macarons didn't quite turn out as they should have. I'm still not quite sure what went wrong. I measured the ingredients precisely and followed the recipe to a T. I let the piped macarons rest before putting them into the oven (check out the picture below of the macarons getting their requisite 30 minutes of R&R). I baked them in two stages, at two different temperatures. Despite all of this, these macarons never developed "feet" and the outer part of the shells are porous when they should have been smooth.

Despite their looks, these macarons still tasted pretty good. Though it's easy to get discouraged when a recipe doesn't turn out as expected, I know that it is just a matter of tweaking, experimenting and, especially, patience before I find a version of the recipe that works. This won't be my last venture into the treacherous terrain of macaron baking.

The other day my husband and I were reminiscing about a trip we took almost 2 years ago to Prague and Vienna. We loved every minute of it and dream about going back someday. Our visit took place in mid-autumn when the leaves had changed color but were still on the trees and the weather was cool and crisp yet you felt perfectly comfortable in just a sweater. In other words, the weather was perfect for outdoor sightseeing and long, leisurely walks in both cities.

The other day over homemade lattes, I was lamenting to my husband about how I wished that there were more places in Paris where you could drop in for a cup of coffee and a piece of cake and stay as long as you like (NB: I currently have no children or other similar preoccupations in my life so, yes, completely frivolous concerns like this tend to pop into my head from time to time).

There is, of course, no shortage of cafés or bakeries in Paris. But what I am looking for is one of the coffeehouses or cakeshops that seemed to be on every other corner in Vienna: the decoration might be modern or traditional, but there is always a multitude of tiered cakes either in the windowfront or greeting you on the counter in large, glass domed cake platters. And for the price of a cup of coffee, the table is yours for as long as you wish.

Since we can’t justify a trip back to Vienna for coffee and cake, I thought I would try to bring it to us. We stopped at our fair share of Kaffeehaus and Konditorei during our trip, but one of the cakes stood out above the rest: the Sachertorte. This is a dense, dry (yes, dry) chocolate cake made of two layers with apricot jam in between and a dark chocolate glaze on top. A slice of Sachertorte is always served with a dollop of whipped cream on the side.

The recipe I followed is off of epicurious. Given the trouble I sometimes encounter using non-French source recipes with French products, I was pleasantly surprised that this Sachertorte turned out nearly exactly as it was meant to. The glaze cooked perhaps a little too long (it never quite reached the temperature indicated in the recipe and the waiting took its toll on the texture...), but this extra time on the stovetop is what made the icing so glossy and, I think, even prettier in a way. If you look closely, you can even see the reflection of my pink shirt!

Those lucky enough to be able to visit Vienna should definitely add eating a piece of Sachertorte to their “to do” list.