Mexican Wedding Cake with Spiced Buttercream, Part 1
OK, let me explain. Bruce and I work together on our recipe concepts. And I tend to think outside the box. I'm not trained for the kitchen, as he is, so I come to food with a Lego mentality: let's smack things together, this with that, and see what happens.
When we were writing THE ULTIMATE COOK BOOK, our 900-recipe tome (which you can find here), I said to him, "You know those Mexican wedding cookies? Those little walnut cookies with lots of spices and dusted with powdered sugar? Can you reinvent those flavors into a layer cake?"
This is his answer. And it's a keeper. I took this baby to book group last week and I'm not sure anyone paid much attention to the book. (Another keeper, too: Daniel Defoe's ROXANA.)
We're going to do this in two posts--first the cake, then the buttercream (which is here). And we're doing in old-school. Real, French-patisserie buttercream, not just sugar beaten into butter. For now, let's do the cake.
Bruce developed a dense, rich cake, not light and airy. The layers are going to be short and squat, more in keeping with the dense texture of those Mexican wedding cookies.
So to start, melt and cool 8 tablespoons (1 stick or 120 grams) unsalted butter. Yep, melted. We're not beating air into the butter, as in a normal layer cake. We're using the melted stuff so that we get a denser, chewier crumb.
Next, use a food processor or a mini food processor to grind a heaping cup of walnut pieces (125 grams) until they're the consistency of coarse cornmeal or wet beach sand. Set the ground nuts aside.
Now position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Lightly butter two 8-inch (20-cm) round cake pans. Note the smaller size, not the standard 9-inch ones. Dust the pans with flour and knock out the excess.
Whisk all this in a small bowl: 1/2 cup (6 grams) all-purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. See, all-purpose flour, not cake flour. Denser, chewier.
Use an electric mixer at medium-high speed to beat 4 large, room-temperature eggs and 1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar in a large bowl until thick and doubled in volume, maybe 5 minutes, maybe a little more. You won't think anything's happening at first (because there's no added fat to this mix). But just let the mixer do the work. Then beat in 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract.
Scrape down and remove the beaters. Fold in the flour mixture with a rubber spatula. Scrape to the bottom to make sure you moisten all the flour. Then fold in the ground walnuts. Finally, fold in the melted and cooled butter.
Pour and scrape this mixture evenly into the two pans. It won't fill them--and may be a little sticky. Spread it out, then rap the pans against the counter a couple of times to remove any air bubbles.
Bake until set but soft and spongy, until a toothpick comes out clean, between 15 and 20 minutes. Set the layers in their pans on a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes, then turn them out and continue cooling on the wire rack until room temperature, about 1 hour.
Up next, frosting the layers with that luscious buttercream.
Mark Scarbrough | Posted on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 10:08AM | in Cake, Desserts, Fabulously Empty Calories
Reader Comments (4)
Ok, so when I saw the title of the post, I thought, "Hmmm. I wonder if Mark is getting married again?" ;-)
Looks enchanting, awaiting the second installment with bated breath! :)
It sounds super delicious.
I am trying to read these posts in order, but the buttercream is calling my name. I will say my mom did an almond version of this cake, or at least I imagine the process is similar– as I never actually made it. Just ate it at Christmas for 3 decades... GREG
Yeah, the buttercream will get you every time. Beware, beware!
M.