Classic Fragilité Cake

February 16, 2014Cake, DessertsTove Balle-Pedersen5 Comments

The classic fragilité cake with coffee buttercream originates from the same Danish pastry chef, Johannes Steen, who also made The Sarah Bernhardt cookie. And must originate from the beginning of the 1900s, when Denmark was very influenced by everything French.

Fragilité means fragile, and it describes the cake well. It's made with delicate layers of crispy meringue with hazelnuts, layered with a mocha/coffee buttercream. The cake feels very light and fluffy, but don't let it fool you, it's filled with great tasting calories😋

Ingredients:

Meringue:

100 g hazelnuts
200 g confectionary sugar
4 egg whites

Mocha buttercream:

3 pasteurised egg yolks
100 g confectionary sugar
150 g butter, salted and room temperature
3 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1,5 teaspoons instant coffee

Directions:

Preheat the oven for 400℉ (200℃).

Chop the hazelnuts. I used the mini chopper that came with my immersion blender, and ended up with a coarse hazelnut flour. Mix the hazelnuts with half of the confectionary sugar.

Whip the egg whites, in a stand mixer, until you have soft peaks. Add the sugar and keep whipping until you have a shiny meringue with stiff peaks. You should be able to turn the bowl upside down.

Fold the hazelnut mixture in.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper, spray it and sprinkle with sugar. I used a 9" x 13" (20x30 cm) pan.

Spread the meringue evenly in the pan, and level of the top.

Bake the meringue for 2 minutes at 400℉ (200℃), then lower the temperature to 305℉ (150℃) and keep on baking foe another 40 minutes.

Buttercream:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, and whip the buttercream until thick and fluffy over a double boiler. I used a saucepan with very hot water, and placed my bowl on top of that. I didn't have it on the stove. It takes some time to get the buttercream nice and fluffy.

Cut the meringue in two, and place the one part on a cake stand, spread all the buttercream on it in an even layer. Put the other half of the meringue on top.

Decorate the cake with some melted chocolate or a sprinkle of confectionary sugar.

Sarah Bernhardt Cookies with Liquorice

February 11, 2014Cake, Liquorice, Sweets and CandyTove Balle-PedersenComment

Sarah Bernhardt cakes originates to 1911, where a Copenhagen pastry chef (Johannes Steen) created this cake as a tribute to the world-famous french actress, Sarah Bernhardt, when she came to Copenhagen to mark the publication of her memoirs in Danish.

The cake is a Danish makron cookie topped with a ganache covered with dark chocolate and decorated with candied violets.

I use the traditional recipe from "Kager & konfekt fra Kransekagehuset" with a few modifications.

Makes about 12 cakes.

Ingredients:

Cakes:

12 Danish makroner
150 g dark chokolate min. 60% cocoa, (a good one, I use Valrhona)
100 g milk chocolate (a good one, I use Valrhona)
1⅔ cup (4 dl) heavy whipping cream (use an organic with only milk as ingredient)
4 teaspoons sweet liquorice syrup
2 teaspoons salty liquorice syrup

Coating:

200 g min. 60% cocoa, (a good one, I use Valrhona)
candied violets

Directions:

Ganache:

Chop the chocolate fine. Bring the cream to a boil in a saucepan, remove the pan from the heat and let the cream cool down to 60℃. Add the chocolate while stirring, and continue to stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Stir in the liquorice sirups. You should now have a dark shiny chocolate sauce/ganache. Cool the ganache in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day whip the ganache with a stand mixer, be careful not to over mix the ganache, this will cause the ganache to curl and become grainy.

Put the ganache into a pastry bag (decoration bag) with a plain round tip. Pipe the ganache on the back side on the makron cookie as a peak. Transfer to freezer until very firm, about 1 hour. (This is where I made a mistake. My cookies were in the freezer overnight, and this made the filling to cold, and caused the condensation on the covered cookies).

Tempering dark chocolate:

Chop the chocolate finely, set just under ⅓ of the chocolate aside, and add the rest into a stainless steel bowl. Set the bowl on to a saucepan with very hot water. Let the chocolate melt while stirring. When the chocolate reaches 122℉ (50℃), take the bowl off the hot water. While stirring let the chocolate cool until it reaches 95℉ (35℃), add the rest of the chopped chocolate and stir vigorously until its all melted. When the chocolate reaches 82-84℉ (28-29℃) put the bowl over the hot water again, and heat the chocolate to 88℉ (31℃), and now its ready to use for coating.

Remove cookies from freezer. Working quickly so that the filling doesn't melt, use a fork to hold cookie above bowl of chocolate, and spoon melted chocolate over cookie. Place filling-side up on cooling rack placed over a baking sheet, sprinkle the candied violets on the tip of the cookie. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Sarah Bernhardt Cookies

February 11, 2014Cake, Sweets and CandyTove Balle-Pedersen2 Comments

Sarah Bernhardt cakes originates back to 1911, where a Copenhagen pastry chef (Johannes Steen) created this cake as a tribute to the world-famous french actress, Sarah Bernhardt, when she came to Copenhagen to mark the publication of her memoirs in Danish.

The cake is a Danish makron cookie topped with a ganache covered with dark chocolate and decorated with candied violets.

I use the traditional recipe from "Kager & konfekt fra Kransekagehuset" with a few modifications.

Makes about 12 cakes.

Ingredients:

Cakes:

12 Danish makroner
150 g dark chokolate min. 60% cocoa, (a good one, I use Valrhona)
100 g milk chocolate (a good one, I use Valrhona)
1⅔ cup (4 dl) heavy whipping cream (use an organic with milk as only ingredient)

Coating:

200 g min. 60% cocoa, (a good one, I use Valrhona)
candied violets

Directions:

Ganache:

Chop the chocolate fine. Bring the cream to a boil in a saucepan, remove the pan from the heat and let the cream cool down to 60℃. Add the chocolate while stirring, and continue to stir until the chocolate is completely melted. You should now have a shiny chocolate sauce/ganache. Cool the ganache in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day whip the ganache with a stand mixer, be careful not to over mix the ganache, this will cause the ganache to curl and become grainy.

Tempering dark chocolate:

Danish Hazelnut Makroner

February 11, 2014Cookies, DessertsTove Balle-PedersenComment

Makroner is a classic danish cookie used in trifle, classic danish apple cake or in layered cakes (danish birthday cakes).

Normally makroner is made with almond flour, but I love this version with hazelnuts. I had a reason for making these makroner, I'm going to make Sarah Bernard cakes. You can read more about Sarah Bernard cakes in another post.

Ingredients:

150 g hazelnuts
300 g sugar
4 egg whites

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400℉ (200℃).

Grind up the hazelnuts in a food processor with thew sugar. Add the egg whites and keep processing until the mixture gets finger warm. Be careful not to get it too hot, so the egg coagulates.

Put the mixture into a pastry bag (decoration bag) with a plain round tip. Pipe the cookies onto a sprayed parchment paper in rounds, leaving space between the disks.

Bake the cookies for about 10-15 minutes.
Let the cookies cool on a wire rack. Gently remove the cooled cookies of the parchment paper, they might stick.

The cookies should be crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. If you are using them in a trifle, bake the cookies a bit longer to make them more crispy.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Enjoy!

Red Velvet Cake for Valentine's day

February 9, 2014CakeTove Balle-Pedersen3 Comments

This cake is as American as apple pie. I had never heard about it before moving here, but it was love at first bite for me. But I quickly learned that not all cakes are made the same. The cake should be moist, light and fluffy. Most store bought cakes are dense and on the dry side.

I think my care fulfilled the three criteria. I added a splash of coffee to enhance the cocoa flavor, but it will also darken the red color, but I think it's worth it.

Ingredients:

Cake:

1 cup (210 g) safflower oil
300 g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
2 eggs
225 g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
20 g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 tablespoon strong cold coffee
1 cup (250 g) buttermilk
1 oz (30 ml) red food coloring

Frosting:

200 g cream cheese, room temperature
120 g salted butter, room temperature
250 g confectionary sugar
1 lemon, the juice of

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9 inch cake pan with baking spray. I also put a round sheet of parchment paper in the pan, to be sure that the cake comes out smooth.

Stir together buttermilk, vinegar, coffee and red food coloring. Set aside.

Cream together oil and sugar until fluffy in a stand mixer. Mix in the eggs.

Add Cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and buttermilk mixture and mix well Lastly add the flour and mix until it's just incorporated. Be careful not to over mix the batter.

Pour batter into cake pans, and level off the surface. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove pan from oven and allow cake to cool in the pan for a while, and cool completely on a wire rack.

Frosting:

Cream the butter and cream cheese with the confectionary sugar and the lemon juice. Whip the frosting for about 5 minutes to get a light and fluffy frosting.

Place one cake on a cake stand, spread about half the frosting on the cake. Add the next cake on top, and finish the cake by spreading the rest of the frosting on top of the cake.

Enjoy, and happy valentines.