A Cake for Joelf's 9th 30th Birthday
So another birthday for my friend Joelf has come and gone, and now all the stooges are in our last year of our thirties. Or rather, we are currently in our ninth year of being 30. However it has been advised that I begin to round up my rounded down age to 35. I have noticed I get carded much, much less.
But I digress. Joelf had a birthday. He also had a friend visiting from a foreign land, and they were in Portland for the week. So we got to celebrate his birthday together. Hooray!
July 11, 2012
Name of Cake: Dirty Thirty, nine times
Occasion: Joelf's Birthday!
Constituents: one biscuit de savoie, filled with butter pecan ice cream and frosted with whipped cream
Yes my friends, we had an ice cream cake.
Joelf loves the ice cream: dead of winter with several feet of snow in the ground or middle of a hot summer day this dude will choose the ice cream. So when I offered to make his birthday cake and threw out the option of an ice cream cake, he said yes, most emphatically. Of course, I was thinking of a cake modeled after the Ice Cream Cake in RHC, you know with a chocolate cake base? I envisioned turning the cake into a sort of hot fudge sundae, frosting the cake in whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles, drizzling each slice with hot fudge and caramel sauces, and a sprinkling of roasted salted peanuts to top it off.
We were in Ben and Jerry's getting, you guessed it, ice cream, when Joelf gestured to the butter pecan and said, "how about a white cake with butter pecan? It would be so good with the caramel."
And so I sighed, as I knew my task would be to find a white cake that wouldn't be hard as a rock right out of the freezer.
Butter cakes were out of the question, as those cakes are hard as rock when they come out of the freezer. Was there a white cake made with oil? Internet searches turned up a big fat no. How about a sponge type cake? My very first ice cream cake was a couple of genoise cakes frozen with ice cream, so I toyed with that option. There actually is a recipe for a white genoise in TCB but Rose describes it as delicate and tender, which doesn't exactly lend itself to an ice cream cake. So I threw out that option too.
I decided to screw the white cake part and make a biscuit, not only because it has no butter or oil (just flour, eggs, and sugar) but also because the absence of oil makes a cake that can absorb a whole hell of a lot of liquid before it gets mushy and falls apart. When I thought of a melty ice cream cake, a cake base that won't turn into soup sounded just about perfect.
I copied the method outlined in the Chocolate Ice Cream Cake, that is I used the recipe for two 9 inch layers (from the Lemon Meringue Cake) and poured about 3/4 of the batter into a 10 inch pan. The extra batter was made into cupcakes, which will be good for berries and cream in the future.
The cooled cake was split in half and the top crust removed. Each layer was syruped with a vanilla simple syrup and squashed into a 9 inch springform pan, with 2 quarts of softened butter pecan ice cream spread between the layers. The assembled cake went back into the freezer for about 8 hours to firm up before serving.
At the party I excused myself to whip up the cream and frost the cake right before serving. The hostess's three year old granddaughter helped me out, mostly by standing on a stool next to me licking the beaters and asking if the cake was ready to eat, if she could frost the cake, why I was using her knife, and if I was finished frosting so we could eat the cake. Finally I was indeed finished so we brought the cake out to Joelf where we lit his candles and sang happy birthday.
It was a beautiful summer evening in a friend's backyard, eating ice cream cake and getting bit by mosquitos. The cake was well recieved; the bicuit indeed soaked up all the melty ice cream with good texture and very mild taste. The caramel and the ice cream were the real stars of this show, and rightly so. It was so fun having Joelf in town and being able to celebrate his birthday with him and the foreigner, and all of our friends. Happy birthday, Joelf!
I had the pleasure of baking Joelf's birthday cake one other time: Joelf's 6th 30th birthday cake: chocolate cake with peanut buttercream
I also baked him a cake and then ate it myself (he was in another country): Joelf's mini Vanilla Bean Poundcakes
But I digress. Joelf had a birthday. He also had a friend visiting from a foreign land, and they were in Portland for the week. So we got to celebrate his birthday together. Hooray!
July 11, 2012
Name of Cake: Dirty Thirty, nine times
Occasion: Joelf's Birthday!
Constituents: one biscuit de savoie, filled with butter pecan ice cream and frosted with whipped cream
Yes my friends, we had an ice cream cake.
Joelf loves the ice cream: dead of winter with several feet of snow in the ground or middle of a hot summer day this dude will choose the ice cream. So when I offered to make his birthday cake and threw out the option of an ice cream cake, he said yes, most emphatically. Of course, I was thinking of a cake modeled after the Ice Cream Cake in RHC, you know with a chocolate cake base? I envisioned turning the cake into a sort of hot fudge sundae, frosting the cake in whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles, drizzling each slice with hot fudge and caramel sauces, and a sprinkling of roasted salted peanuts to top it off.
We were in Ben and Jerry's getting, you guessed it, ice cream, when Joelf gestured to the butter pecan and said, "how about a white cake with butter pecan? It would be so good with the caramel."
And so I sighed, as I knew my task would be to find a white cake that wouldn't be hard as a rock right out of the freezer.
Butter cakes were out of the question, as those cakes are hard as rock when they come out of the freezer. Was there a white cake made with oil? Internet searches turned up a big fat no. How about a sponge type cake? My very first ice cream cake was a couple of genoise cakes frozen with ice cream, so I toyed with that option. There actually is a recipe for a white genoise in TCB but Rose describes it as delicate and tender, which doesn't exactly lend itself to an ice cream cake. So I threw out that option too.
I decided to screw the white cake part and make a biscuit, not only because it has no butter or oil (just flour, eggs, and sugar) but also because the absence of oil makes a cake that can absorb a whole hell of a lot of liquid before it gets mushy and falls apart. When I thought of a melty ice cream cake, a cake base that won't turn into soup sounded just about perfect.
I copied the method outlined in the Chocolate Ice Cream Cake, that is I used the recipe for two 9 inch layers (from the Lemon Meringue Cake) and poured about 3/4 of the batter into a 10 inch pan. The extra batter was made into cupcakes, which will be good for berries and cream in the future.
The cooled cake was split in half and the top crust removed. Each layer was syruped with a vanilla simple syrup and squashed into a 9 inch springform pan, with 2 quarts of softened butter pecan ice cream spread between the layers. The assembled cake went back into the freezer for about 8 hours to firm up before serving.
At the party I excused myself to whip up the cream and frost the cake right before serving. The hostess's three year old granddaughter helped me out, mostly by standing on a stool next to me licking the beaters and asking if the cake was ready to eat, if she could frost the cake, why I was using her knife, and if I was finished frosting so we could eat the cake. Finally I was indeed finished so we brought the cake out to Joelf where we lit his candles and sang happy birthday.
It was a beautiful summer evening in a friend's backyard, eating ice cream cake and getting bit by mosquitos. The cake was well recieved; the bicuit indeed soaked up all the melty ice cream with good texture and very mild taste. The caramel and the ice cream were the real stars of this show, and rightly so. It was so fun having Joelf in town and being able to celebrate his birthday with him and the foreigner, and all of our friends. Happy birthday, Joelf!
I had the pleasure of baking Joelf's birthday cake one other time: Joelf's 6th 30th birthday cake: chocolate cake with peanut buttercream
I also baked him a cake and then ate it myself (he was in another country): Joelf's mini Vanilla Bean Poundcakes
This looks so yummy, ECL! That Joelf is lucky to have such a talented friend. :)
ReplyDeleteYum! I've missed your posts! :)
ReplyDeleteGood suggestion, Jolfe! I love, I mean love, butter pecan ice cream. Actually, I love practically all ice creams, but butter pecan is just divine!
ReplyDeleteThe caramel dripping is an inspiration of anticipation! I've missed you, Evil! x
Lois, thanks! He sure is lucky.
ReplyDeleteAmanda, I've missed our little bloggy community! But I had to take a massive break after the cake-a-week for two years thing.
Melinda, yes, Joelf is full of good suggestions. Is butter pecan your favorite? We should do an ice cream tour when you come to Portland!
Jamoca Almond Fudge is my favourite.
ReplyDeleteAn ice cream tour sounds an excellent idea! Jolfe can suggest where for us to go to!
I agree, he is one lucky guy!! This cake looks sooo delicious! And ice-cream! My fave too!
ReplyDeleteMelinda, I will compile a list of ice cream shops; several have popped up in the last year.
ReplyDeletefaithy, thank you! It is hard to beat the combination of ice cream and cake.
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ReplyDeleteWow! I am sure that tasted great!
ECL: This looks delish! I love the idea of doing a dacquoise crust and painting it with chocolate. Yum! xoxo Sarah Bearclaw (aka Sarah the Bear)
ReplyDelete