Advanced Projects Presentations: 11/15/2012

On Thursday Nov. 15th, my Advanced Projects art class had an art show;  every member of the class showed work that they did this fall.  I decided to show my cakes first-hand and allow everyone to enjoy and taste vegan cakes!  I spent the beginning of the week planning the cakes I wanted to bake and I went out of Tuesday night to buy all of the ingredients.  At noon on Wednesday I started baking the cakes for the show!  I baked half of the cakes that afternoon and then spent the rest of the night making frostings and fillings.   I managed to squeeze in 6 hours of sleep and then got up early to bake the remaining cakes.  I spent Thursday finishing and decorating all the cakes in time for the 6:30pm show.   I didn't know it was possible to bake and decorate 8 cakes in 30 hours--It was a blast and I was exhausted!  At the show, I asked everyone for donations for The Humane Society of the United States for animals trapped or injured by Hurricane Sandy, and together, we were able to give $20 to the cause.   Overall the  art show was fantastic!

Here are the cakes from the show:

Devil's Food Cake 

The Devil's Food Cake was the hit of the night!   A rich chocolate cake sprinkled with coffee liquor, filled with a chocolate buttercream, covered in chocolate ganache, and topped with dark chocolate.  

Coconut Lime Cake

A vanilla cake flavored with lime zest, filled and covered in a whipped cream frosting, pressed coconut flakes on the sides, and covered in a lime glaze.  

(I used Healthy Top for the whipped cream frosting. It's a wonderful vegan whipped cream made with cashews and almonds that comes vacuumed-packed.)  

Amaretto Cake

An almond cake, layered between Amaretto buttercream and large almond-meringue cookies.  Decorated with silvered and sliced almonds, and small almond-meringue cookies.   

This cake was inspired by Zuger Kirschtorte, a classic Swiss cake.   I was able to make vegan meringue with egg replacer and cream of tartar.      

Black Forest Cake

A chocolate depression cake, with a tart cherry and kirsch filling, frosted with a kirsch buttercream, and topped with chocolate ganache, maraschino cherries, and chocolate shavings.

 Rosewater Safflower Cake

A Rosewater-Vanilla Spice Cake decorated with Safflower and Rose Buttercreams, and topped with liquor-soaked dried prunes.

Raspberry Lemon Cake

Lemon Cake, filled with Lemon Curd, topped Lemon Buttercream, and covered in Raspberry glaze. 

 Gluten-Free Tea Cake

An Earl Grey Tea Cake Frosted with Buttercream and topped with an Apricot glaze.     

And Last but not least, more Cookie Cakes!  

Cookie Cakes, topped with vanilla buttercream

Banana Foster Cake

This cake was invented last week when I decided to experiment with a new cake recipe.  The cake recipe called for some yogurt, so I added some almond strawberry yogurt that I had in the fridge and decided to flavor the cake with a little almond extract and some Amaretto.   Once the cakes were un-molded from the pans I made an Amaretto-vanilla buttercream frosting and decided that I would decorate the sides of the cake with slivered almonds.   As I was slicing the tops off of the cakes, Alex came into the kitchen, tried some of the cake scraps and told me that it tasted a little fruity. He thought that I should play up the unique fruity-ness of the cake and not just focus on the almonds.   He suggested a banana cream filling and thus the Banana Foster Cake was born!   I can't take much credit for the filling (after my soup-y boston cream pie filling I wasn't ready to try again quite yet), Alex took it upon himself to make the perfect banana cream filling for me.   With a combination of soymilk, a mashed banana, cornstarch, and water, the filling was created!  

Banana Foster Cake with Banana Cream Filling and Amaretto Frosting

Made Nov. 8th, 2012

Boston Cream Pie

Until about two weeks ago, I had thought that the only type of Boston Cream Pie was a doughnut.  I never realized that it is actually a classic type of cake!  So I set out to make my own version of a Boston Cream Pie!  Mind you, I've never had a Boston Cream Pie or a Boston Cream Pie doughnut before (I don't know how I've been alive for all these years and have never tasted a Boston Cream Pie!)).  

Anyways, after reading about Boston Cream Pies and looking at lots of pictures I decided that there's no reason why I couldn't make one?  They appear to be easy cakes with 3 main parts: vanilla cake, filling, and chocolate ganache.  

I didn't realize how challenging this simple cake can be!   My biggest problem was that the filling I tried to make turned out too thin (it tasted wonderful but just wasn't firm enough) and spilled out over the edges of the bottom layer of my cake.   I was disappointed by the messy appearance of the cake but I decided to finish it because I was so close and I had the ganache already made up.   After I was finished, I coved the cake and put it in the fridge overnight.

  The next day I brought it to my art class thinking that it was a completely failure--I thought that the cake was going to be all mushy and gross inside.  I was wrong however!  Although the cake's messy appearance hadn't changed, the filling that was still inside remained inside the cake and didn't make the cake mushy at all.  The cake held together very nicely and although the pudding was, well, pudding, the cake sliced perfectly.  I enjoyed the simplicity of this cake, it was very tasty and I can understand why it is such a popular dessert.   I will attempt another Boston Cream Pie in the future, hopefully my next one will have a better apperance!

Boston Cream Pie 

Made Nov. 6th, 2012

Do you know why a Boston Cream Pie is called a pie?  After reading about Boston Cream Pie in The Joy of Cooking I found out that the cake was traditional baked in pie dishes, so that's how it got its name.  

Lemon Star Cake with Lemon Curd

This cake was such a success!  I adore vanilla lemon cakes--their yellow color is always so satisfying and all the usual tartness of the lemon is lost; the lemon itself is really able to shine through.

I wanted to experiment with making a Lemon Curd to go inside of my cake.  Lemond Curds are traditionally made with cream and eggs, but I found this amazing vegan recipe here: http://dairyfreecooking.about.com/od/condimentschutneys/r/lemoncurdcook.htm

The curd was perfect and firmed up so nicely.   Here's a picture of the curd inside of the cake before I frosted it.

And now after frosting:

Lemon Star Cake filled with Lemon Curd and topped with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Made November 1st, 2012

Apple Cakes

Last Fall I tried making an apple upside down cake with little success.  The apples rose up into the cake batter and the whole thing was so gooey it didn't want to un-mold from the pan.  Two weeks ago I made an apple upside down cake and it turned out so much better!  I made sure to grease the bottom of my pan generously and I covered my arranged apple slices tightly with brown sugar.  Then I poured the cake batter slowly over the top using a measuring scoop as to not disturb the apples.  Being more careful and treating the cake delicately produced a much better upside down cake.   

Here is the cake when I first un-molded it:

I decided to lightly decorate the cake with a little cinnamon and ginger buttercream.   

Apple Upside Down Spice Cake

Made October 28th, 2012

When I made the upside down cake I had a little extra cake batter, so I stuck that in a round pan and baked that up as well.  Then next day I decided that we should eat the leftover spice cake---but what to decorate it with?  So I went into the fridge and found some homemade apple and cranberry sauce that Alex made and a few different containers of vanilla buttercreams left over from previous cakes.  Who knew there was such a thing as a left over cake?  

Apple Cinnamon Left Over Cake

Made October 29th, 2012

For being a leftover cake it turned out so yummy.  Many people use applesauce in their cake bases to make the cake moist, so why not have applesauce on top of your cake?   

Cinnamon and Vanilla is such good and simple flavor combination.  

A Note on Buttercream Frosting:

Some people have told me that because my cakes are vegan, I should change the name of my buttercream frostings from "buttercream" to something else.  Since there isn't any butter in my buttercream frosting, than maybe I am mislabeling it?   ... I've thought a lot about this however I still think using the term buttercream for my frostings is appropriate.  That is because buttercream is a type of frosting, my buttercream frosting just substitutes vegetable shortening and vegan margarine in the place of butter.   I started this cake project to show that people don't have to compromise on deliciousness and flavor switching to vegan.   Creating a vegan buttercream and still calling it buttercream challenges buttercream made with dairy.  Vegan buttercream is just as tasty as any other buttercream on this planet!

Making Vegan Buttercream Frosting is simple:   Combine equal parts of vegetable shortening and vegan margarine (this can be done in a mixer or in a large bowl with a fork).  Then mix in powered sugar (I use Florida Crystals brand) until the mixture becomes firm and clumps up and is dry.   Next is the fun part: add your desired flavoring (like vanilla, or rosewater, or sifted cocoa powder, or a combination of flavors).  Last, slowly add small amounts of water or nondairy milk until you achieve the consistency of frosting you're looking for (for most cakes I want a firm yet soft and spreadable frosting).

Cookie Cake and Tempeh Bacon Cake--Oh My!

Here is my second cookie cake that I created for a Veg (Vegan/Vegetarian) Club meeting at school.   This second cookie cake came out just as good as the first--I slightly under-baked it so it was even softer.  Here is a link to recipe I used:  http://pakupaku.info/sweets/blondies.shtml , the only change is that I didn't put in any nuts.

Cookie Cake #2  

Decorated with Vanilla Buttercream

Made 10/16/2012

And here is my first attempt a savory cake... although I think of this cake as more of a breakfast cake than anything else.   How did this cake happen?  Well, my friend, Sara, came over for dinner and was telling me all about how she wanted me to try and make a bacon cake (Sara is also a vegan, so this meant using tempeh bacon of course!).  I thought the idea was gross, but Sara explained to me that it is a different kind of cake that is mildly sweet-- it's a savory cake.  I wasn't sure if I was convinced that it was a good idea, however a few nights later I decided to test out a new recipe for a vegan pound cake.  The recipe called for yogurt, and the only yogurt I had in the fridge was a container of blueberry almond yogurt so I decided to use that.  I was so tired (it was late at night) that I forgot to add the sugar the recipe called for and didn't realize that until the cake came out of the oven.  I was tasting the cake and noticed that the cake was only lightly sweet and I really liked how it tasted; it was more like a vanilla-y biscuit and the blueberry yogurt only gave it a slight blueberry taste.   It occurred to Alex and I that this could become the bacon cake that Sara was asking for.   So I bought some Tofutti cream cheese and Light Life tempeh bacon stripes, and the Tempeh Bacon Cake was born!

Tempeh Bacon Cake with a Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Made 10/18/2012

Overall, I liked how this cake turned out.  A savory cake was a new experience for me but I can see how it could be really awesome.   I just think that next time I just need to use more tempeh bacon to complete the saltiness this cake needs.  

Breakfast anyone?   

Rosewater Spice Cake with Safflower Petals

After trying a new Persian recipe for rosewater saffron rice, I decided to make a cake that would incorporate all of the spices from the dish.   The rosewater cake base contains the following spices: clove, nutmeg, cardamom, a little allspice, safflower petals, and cinnamon.  

Rosewater Spice Cake with Safflower Petals

Covered with a layer of Almond Cream Frosting and decorated with Cherry and Vanilla Buttercream

Made Oct. 14th 2012

Vegan Black Forest Cake

This whole week I've been craving chocolate cake.   I've never made a Black Forest cake before, but I am so happy with how this cake came out.  Black Forest is my new favorite cake!   This cake is a chocolate depression cake sprinkled with Kirsch and covered in vanilla frosting.  In between the two layers of cake is a layer of cherries.   To make the cherry filling, I took a jar of sour cherries and heated them on the stove with some sugar then added some coconut milk with three tablespoons of cornstarch. The top of the cake has additional cherries and is finished off with a handful of chocolate shavings.   Delicious!  

Black Forest Cake 

Made 11/3/2012

Some pictures of my workspace: 

And here are some pictures of the light tent set up in our living room with the Black Forest cake posing inside: