Mexican Wedding Cake with Spiced Buttercream, Part 2
In the last post (find it here), we did the layers to this beauty: a thick, chewy, walnut cake, designed to model the flavors in Mexican wedding cookies.
In this post, it's all about the buttercream.
And not just any buttercream. Yes, spiced. But also real. Too many people think buttercream is just sugar beaten into butter. That's all well and good. Delicious, too. But it's not the old-school, Frenchified, grandmotherly buttercream. Because it doesn't have eggs. Which is the whole key to how buttercream gets so silky. It's not the butter--it's the eggs. So without further ado. . . .
Begin by using an electric mixer to beat 1 room-temperature large egg, 2 room-temperature large egg yolks, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a large bowl at medium-high speed until very creamy and doubled in volume, about 5 minutes. You won't think anything is happening at first, but just keep at it. Soon enough, you'll see the change--and the increase in volume. The key is to start with the eggs at room temperature so the protein chains are as long as possible, to trap as much air as possible. Shut off the beaters and leave that be for a moment.
Mix 1 cup (200 grams) sugar, 1/4 cup (60 ml) water, and 1 tablespoon (15 ml) light corn syrup in a small saucepan. Bring it to a boil over high heat, stirring until the sugar mostly dissolves. Then drop the heat to medium-high, clip a candy thermometer to the inside of the pan (or use a fancy laser thermometer as Bruce does), and leave it boiling until the mixture reaches 250F (121 C). Remove the pan from the heat; remove the thermometer.
Beat the eggs a couple of more rounds to make sure any liquid is incorporated. Then with the mixer running at medium speed, beat in that hot sugar syrup in a slow, very small, steady stream, not wider than a small knitting needle. Once all the sugar syrup has been added, keep beating until the mixture in the bowl is at room temperature, about 10 minutes. Fair warning: you need a sturdy mixer and some patience for this task.
Now beat in 3 sticks (24 tablespoons or 360 grams) unsalted, room temperature butter, about 2 tablespoons (30 grams) at a time. This is where it gets good. Really good. Once all the butter has been added, continue beating until the mixture is thick and frostinglike, between 5 and 10 minutes, depending on many ambient factors. Just turn the beaters off and look at it. Or taste it. You know you want to.
Beat in the spices: 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg, and 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves.
Now you're ready to frost the cake. Line a cake server or stand with wax paper and put one layer of the cake on top. Add a big, heaping, luscious scoop of buttercream. Smooth it out a little--but no need to be obsessive. Set the other layer and top and gently push down to flatten the buttercream and bring it out to the edge of the cake. Use an off-set spatula to add more frosting, smoothing it around the sides and top. Bruce often puts most of the frosting on top first, then uses that spatula to smooth it out and bring it down over the edge of the cake, along the sides. You've got the cake server covered with wax paper, so there's no worry about making a mess.
Finally, he always gives the buttercream a design. This time, he used a serrated knife, zigzagging it very lightly through the frosting to create a wavy pattern. And just so you know: he didn't like how it came out the first time, so he smoothed the buttercream out and did it again. Even Bruce isn't perfect.
And that's it. The whole shebang. A real (and spiced) buttercream on a walnut cake. I promise: it's a keeper. (And just so you know: there are more of these old-school buttercreams in THE ULTIMATE COOK BOOK.)
Mark Scarbrough | Posted on Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 7:34AM | in Cake, Desserts, Fabulously Empty Calories
Reader Comments (6)
I had no idea that "real" buttercream had eggs in it! Guess I'll have to stop bragging about my real buttercream, which most people are impressed by simply because it didn't come out of a can!
cold eggs warm eggs I get so confused when is what and how and where... GREG
@Greg: In baking, you almost never need cool or cold eggs. That said, the eggs should not be warm but just room temp. You can leave them out on the counter for 15 minutes or you can submerge them in a bowl of lukewarm (not hot!) tap water for 3 or 4 minutes.
Hope that helps!
M.
What do you think of this quote?
[Text removed by Mark]
Greg: I'm sorry to have removed the quote from your post, but I don't feel comfortable posting long bits of unattributed, copywritten material. I don't know the source of the quote, so I can't reasonably check it; but I will say that the author's (authors'?) reasoning--there's not one cake that calls for room-temperature eggs in this one particular cookbook--is specious at best. Also, the research detailed by both Harold McGee and Shirley Corriher on the matter is quite conclusive--because they back it up with scientific investigation and thorough reviews of the food science literature, not just what they "feel" or "believe" to be true. The protein chains in the eggs should be elongated to help them build structure--not as much as the fat molecules but nonetheless elongated. The only way to do that is to take them out of the chill--and bring them to about 65F, somewhere a little below room temperature (but the internal temperature will naturally be a little chillier than the shell temperature because of the shell's natural--albeit weak--insulating properties).
I don't mean to be harsh by not posting your quote, but I spend too much time taking down our own material from sites that copy it without attribution. I just had a long quarrel last week with a blogger who posted a recipe and attendant text directly from one of our cookbooks. When she finally admitted to doing it, she basically told me to sue her if I wanted her to take it down. Sigh. I referred the matter to the publisher, but I don't think it will do much good.
M.
David Lebovitz wrote one of the best articles on recipe attribution that I've read. Thought it might be of interest here...
http://foodblogalliance.com/2009/04/recipe-attribution.php