Real Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum

Thanks Rozanne. My niece was so gracious to dress for the occasion, and it was her first surprise birthday party. She is so dearly and was not referring the animal shaped feet to hers!

Reply to this      Posted by: Hector | April 30, 2008 12:57 PM #

Oh Hector, don't be so hard on yourself. The cake looks great. Josephine has grown so much in a year. You have one very good looking niece!

Reply to this      Posted by: Rozanne | April 30, 2008 12:05 PM #

Here is Josephine 7th, 2008. A giant Caramel Cage cupola over a small cone shaped cake that is floating on the top half of the cupola. Hula Girl was the theme. I didn't have much time to work on this, that attributes for the animal shaped feet!

http://www.hectorwong.com/roselevy/JosephineHawaiiDoll3.html

Reply to this      Posted by: Hector | April 29, 2008 3:47 PM #

louise, please spedify whether the white need to be whisk to form peaks?
Thanks

Reply to this      Posted by: Anonymous | April 20, 2008 10:05 PM #

Thank you so much, Louise! I have been making recipes that call for egg yolks and have been wondering what to do with all the extra egg whites now stored in the freezer. This recipe will be added to the list along with various recipes for angel food cake!

Reply to this      Posted by: Barbara A. | April 19, 2008 5:10 PM #

Not really sure where this belongs on the blog but here goes. I have made over 200 macaroons this Passover. Each time someone tastes them – they get a big smile on their face and say they are the best they have ever had. I promise you it is not my baking skills – it is this wonderfully easy recipe which can be enjoyed year round. The key is to use unsweetened shredded coconut (which you can find at health food stores or kosher markets) – not the sweetened flaked coconut. Most people, including me, like them best with a big glop of chocolate on top, but you can eat it plain, with chocolate chips mixed in or with melted chocolate mixed in. They are super easy – you do not even need a mixer and they take forever to go stale because of the ingredients. They are always great – so I wanted to share the recipe with my fellow bakers. Louise

Macaroons
------------ --------------------------------
3/4-cup sugar
2 1/2 cups shredded coconut (not sweetened flaked coconut)
3 egg whites -- -
1-teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch kosher salt
Chocolate chips -- optional
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix first 5 ingredients. Can be done by hand with a spoon or spatula.
Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Spoon dough onto cookie sheet. I like to use a small ice cream scoop to get the correct shape.
Bake for 15 minutes or until nicely brown.
To make chocolate covered macaroons - melt chocolate chips and spoon a big dollop over macaroons AFTER they come out of the oven.
To make chocolate macaroons:
Add to egg whites - 4 oz melted semi sweet chocolate and 1/4 cup unsweetened sifted coco. The chocolate macaroons take a little (5 minutes) longer to cook
To make chocolate chunk - add to egg whites 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips.
NOTES: Makes 20 macaroons with a Tablespoon ice cream scoop

Reply to this      Posted by: Louise Allen | April 19, 2008 2:43 PM #

Rozanne, THANKS! Look for the cake called Golden Cage in the cake bible. Use the caramel cage technique. Here is the engineering for the sunglasses:

http://www.hectorwong.com/roselevy/Shade2.html

As I often do, I built my own mold with cardboard, then loosely line it aluminum foil. Whenever you build your own mold, keep in mind that it should unmold preferably in one piece. However, what I did to unmold these sunglasses is cut the mold as much as I could, taking it out in pieces, a very dangerous technique because you risk to crack the caramel each time you make a cut on the cardboard.

I would have preferred a much lacier pattern for the sunglasses, but the initial design was to stand the sunglasses on its arms and hold all the cupcakes on the glass, as you can see on one of the variations.

Overall, the sunglasses turned out well, not bad for a first attempt. I don't (yet) do this full-time, and I only had 2 day notice for this "cake" plus on the same evening I had to bring mango passion tart for an earlier dinner. For some reason, EVERYONE is so engaged looking at caramel cages, specially when defying gravity.

Reply to this      Posted by: Hector | April 15, 2008 6:09 PM #

Wow - I love it Hector!

Reply to this      Posted by: Patrincia | April 15, 2008 5:27 PM #

Awesome! I love it. How did you make the glasses?

Reply to this      Posted by: Rozanne | April 15, 2008 3:44 PM #

LOL. LOVE the glasses!

Reply to this      Posted by: MarkMc | April 15, 2008 3:20 PM #

Here is 'Shade' and the last from tournament of roses.

http://www.hectorwong.com/roselevy/Shade.html

P.S. in case you can't tell, this is my rendition of sunglasses and cupcakes.

Reply to this      Posted by: Hector | April 15, 2008 3:18 PM #

Hector and MarkMc,
Thank you for the recipe and advice.

Reply to this      Posted by: cindy | April 10, 2008 8:21 PM #

THAT is my recipe!

Cindy, you can lighten up the flan by using more whites than yolks, sub by volume. Once I did a flan with all whites, and it turned ok.

I've also tried replacing 2 cans of evaporated milk with either/or whole/fat-free milk.

Always tube pan (non removable bottom). It is actually a pan which has a larger center tube, like those old fashion pound cake pans. Aluminum, non-non stick. You can used a regular pan or one without a tube, will need to adjust cooking time and perhaps temperature, specially if the flan is not as tall. My flan is about 3 inches tall (still in the mold) or about 2 to 2.5 unmolded

Reply to this      Posted by: Hector | April 10, 2008 1:06 PM #

This is Hector's recipe from an earlier post (thanks Hector!):

Flan recipe: heat on high 1 cup of sugar in a heavy sauce pan. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon. When the sugar starts dissolving, you will notice a few darker caramel spots, stir them around. You must be in front of your stove, eventually all will melt and get a light gold color. When the gold turns into light brown, pour immediately on your flan tube pan. Under no circumstances let the caramel achieve a dark brown color, it will continue to darken as it cools, and it would taste burn. I usually throw away so many batches!

Mix at speed 1 or with the paddle attachment: 9 whole eggs, 1 cup of sugar, 4 cans of evaporated milk, for 45 minutes. Yes this long. Remove the paddle attachment carefully, it will have some egg clinging to it, discard. Stir 1 tablespoon of homemade vanilla essence. Pour on your flan pan (by now, the pan should have cooled down and cracking caramel glass broken noises should have been heard).

Place on a water batch, room temperature water, in a NON-preheated oven at 300oF for 60 minutes. Turn off your oven, do not open the oven door. Let the oven and flan cool completely before removing from the oven, usually overnight or 4 to 6 hours during the day.

Chill in the refrigerator, well wrapped for at least 24 hours, up to 1 week. Shorter time will not allow enough caramel from the pan to release.

Slide a non-serrated thin knife thru the outer and inner borders of the pan. Unmold upside down and leave the pan for about 15 minutes until the most caramel have detached. Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled. Flan tastes better when it is at room temperature. Be sure to scoop a few spoons of dissolved caramel onto each serving plate.

It is important "your" 300oF does not boil the flan mix or water batch at any point, otherwise you will form bubbles in the custard as it sets. After 60 minutes the flan will still be fairly liquid, it will finish setting with the residual heat.

Reply to this      Posted by: MarkMc | April 10, 2008 9:00 AM #

Hector, did you posted any recipe of flan?

Reply to this      Posted by: Anonymous | April 10, 2008 8:56 AM #

Thanks Hector. I will try that. Can your recipe be halved or quartered?
Do you always use a tube pan?

Reply to this      Posted by: MarkMc | April 10, 2008 8:05 AM #

Is Flan the same as " custard caramel"?What is the best egg to liquid ratio?Hector ,do you use egg or egg yolk only or both?

Reply to this      Posted by: cindy | April 10, 2008 7:50 AM #

I have found the best baking method for flan is to bake at un-preheated oven, 300oF convection for 60 minutes on a water bath (room temp water). Then leave the flan in the oven for hours until completely cool.

Any higher temperature or quicker boil will risk the formation and set of undesired bubbles.

/H.

Reply to this      Posted by: Hector | April 10, 2008 3:30 AM #

Hector~
The Tiramisu sounds great.

The best flan I've ever tasted was years ago when a friend from the Philippines made it...with canned evaporated milk. Wish I had asked for his recipe! Still can remember it's gorgeous texture.

Reply to this      Posted by: MarkMc | April 9, 2008 7:22 AM #

Veronica, it is a flan, and the recipe is from Peru. I've worked on the recipe extensively, "discovering" that flan should be left in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, so the caramel releases the most and melts heavenly. It wasn't a discovery after all since then I found a book who writes about this! Also, Rose's Melting Pot has a flan recipe, pointing out another of my "discoveries" which is the use of canned evaporated milk for unsurprised smoothness.

Mangoes, frozen are great, specially if they come from your local tree ripened fruit. Best for the rose pattern, to use fresh, but after formed you can freeze.

Mark, dry ice works when a refrigerator doesn't or in this case can't! My Caramel Capello uses a cake truffle, but next time I will make Tiramisu or alternate layers of Biscuit de Savoie with Silk Buttercream.

Reply to this      Posted by: Hector | April 9, 2008 12:57 AM #

Hector~
Superb "world" of cake and buttercream! The dry ice solution is brilliant!

Love your Capello as well..the wood base and the color choices. Fabulous!

~Mark

Reply to this      Posted by: MarkMc | April 8, 2008 10:52 PM #

Just catching up on everything. My old nanna computer kicked the bucket and finally I have the new computer up and running. Hey hector I wanted to ask about the cake in the center of the Rose cupcake ring. It looks like the custard pudding I do all the time for my family. I'm portuguese and I know Hawaii has a lot of portuguese influenced recipies.

And your world cake stunning. I freeze my Mangoes too, I have 250 trees in the backyard R2E2's, these mangoes can get up to 1.2kg in weight. I dice them up and freeze and then they are eaten half frozen like icecream only healthier.

Reply to this      Posted by: Veronica | April 8, 2008 10:37 PM #

Gorgeous! Very creative as well.

Reply to this      Posted by: Anonymous | April 8, 2008 2:57 PM #

I've just comple-ated this Caramel Capello.

Caramel Cage. Caramel Silk Meringue Buttercream on Biscuit de Savoie cake truffle. Grand Marnier Mousseline Buttercream blue roses.

http://www.hectorwong.com/roselevy/CaramelCapello.html

Reply to this      Posted by: Hector | April 8, 2008 1:56 PM #

I am going to put this in writing:

Katie you are the perfect customer!

I remember 2 months ago when I showed you my cake catalog, 2 things brightened your eyes: The Rose Cupcake Ring and The Mango Passion Tart, hard choice! So, at you birthday party I told guests "Katie wasn't sure which cake she wanted, so I gave her the world!"

The truth is that 2 months of good work was done, and glad you were up to all my questions and sharing of feedback. I sent you a picture of almost every step of the cake in progress, and you could not have rewarded me with any greater honor than wearing a dress to match!

One art gallery called me after looking at your cake and wants to show it in an exhibition. I guess I am an artist with cake as media. I don't make much money making cakes (yet), but it is almost an irony that right now I can be called an "starving artist."

Hugs. /Hec

Reply to this      Posted by: Hector | April 4, 2008 3:01 AM #

I am the very lucky lady who received Hector's fabulous World Cake on my 50th birthday! Can you imagine how I felt seeing the cake for the first time... and knowing all my friends were going to enjoy tasting it with me? It was a WOW moment. I wore five different outfits at the party that night but the aquamarine colored dress that matched the cake, was so much fun. The dress was created from a wedding gown that someone had given me for the fabric...but I decided to wear it backwards...to show more cleavage ;-) and I had it dyed aquamarine! Many people told me that seeing me standing by the blue World Cake was their favorite image of the party. Hector himself was the one to feed me a piece of a Mango Passion continent. Yummy...I was in heaven...over the earth-world cake. I am SOOOO grateful to have a friend like Hector who has given me, and his mentor Ms. Rose Levy, a reason to cry with joy and pride. Hector is the ultimate cake baker; he is creative, and totally passionate about his work! Kisses, Katie

Reply to this      Posted by: Katie, The Birthday Girl | April 3, 2008 11:03 PM #

guau!!! es espectacular!! un super trabajo de filigrana...eres un artista

creo sinceramente q estas perdiendo plata,...buscar un trabajo? creo que deberias ofrecer tu arte a los demas...

Reply to this      Posted by: Monica | April 1, 2008 8:45 PM #

Hooray for leftovers!!! (and congrats on the new freezer)

Reply to this      Posted by: Patrincia | April 1, 2008 4:43 PM #

Patrincia, I am shaping a caramel cage and fill it with cake truffle (biscuit de savoie with caramel smbc). Then top it off with petal-tight blue roses.

A recycled cake, you can call it. The truth is that I always make extra components so my work flow is smoother for upcoming cakes. Sounds like I am running a bakery already!

A third freezer should be on its way to THE YELLOW KITCHEN.

Reply to this      Posted by: Hector | April 1, 2008 1:48 PM #

We can't wait!

Reply to this      Posted by: Patrincia | April 1, 2008 7:38 AM #

Sneak preview of what is due this weekend:

http://www.hectorwong.com/roselevy/HatOfRoses.html

Reply to this      Posted by: Hector | April 1, 2008 3:36 AM #

Hector, you are such a fantastic creative human being. How i wish im that creative. Keep it up. And to Patricia you are wonderful. Keep it up!!!!

Reply to this      Posted by: cakeroyale | March 31, 2008 5:52 AM #

And I saw Kathy struggle, too! She helped me cut some cardboard in the shape of the continents, which I carefully drew and wanted perfect cutting accuracy!

One thing I am still uncomfortable to do is to drive cakes for delivery. Luca almost jumped off the passenger seat because I was a total neurotic and ran over 2 red lights! When he asked if it is the cake or our lives, I answered "the cake."

By the way, we took apart one of my house windows, because the cake was too wide for the front door. This was planned.

Reply to this      Posted by: Hector | March 31, 2008 3:11 AM #

Yes, my friend Hector is amazing with his baking talents! I was there when the idea for a world cake with mango tarts as the continents and cupcakes with blue buttercream (eeek!) for the ocean was being discussed. I must say, I couldn't picture it. I thought for sure that Hector had just done himself in. No way this will be produced in Hector's usual elegant style.

I saw him struggle through weeks of test baking the coconut crust, trying to make the correct shapes. I admit, I had my doubts.

When I saw the final product, I was completely astonished! He did it! A cake like this has definitely never been done before. Oh, also, it tasted great too! Hector's buttercream is the best. It just melted in my mouth leaving the scent of a fruity/floral combination. Yum!

Congratulations Hector!

Reply to this      Posted by: Kathy | March 31, 2008 2:22 AM #

My silicone, just coming out clean from the clothes washer!

http://www.hectorwong.com/roselevy/silicone.html

Reply to this      Posted by: Hector | March 30, 2008 6:12 PM #

hector:
You are amazing...I am just blown away!

Reply to this      Posted by: Anonymous | March 30, 2008 9:25 AM #

hector...you are amazing

Reply to this      Posted by: Anonymous | March 30, 2008 9:23 AM #

Come on Hector, who are you kidding. Fess up, the cookie was really your DINNER tonight wasn't it? Sounds good!

Why not develop the princess idea further? Let's think along the lines of tiara....

I am sure she has seen The Cake Bible. What is her favourite picture in he Cake Bible? I bet she would pick one of Rose's wedding cakes [fit for a princess!]. You could do a smaller version of a 3 tier cake with a princess twist. Put a tiera on the top made of spun caramel or have a look a the Rose Trellis cake [TCB] for inspiration and adapt that into a tiara for the top. Lucky lucky girl.

Reply to this      Posted by: Valerie | March 30, 2008 1:26 AM #

I've just posted this in another thread, but maybe it is worth posting here again:

I need to report that I just had the most wonderful cookies baked in the microwave!!!!!!!!

I had one scrap of sweet coconut cookie tart crust, stored frozen according to the recommendations in The Pie and Pastry Bible (form a ball, flatten into a disc, freeze airtight).

I placed this, still frozen, on a ceramic microwave safe plate, and popped it for 1.5 minutes. It cooked all the way, was very fluffy, and it even browned into a beautiful but oddly shaped cookie.

Poured some Cordon Rose Strawberry Conserve, and that was my dessert tonight!

Reply to this      Posted by: Hector | March 30, 2008 1:00 AM #

princess is the first word

Josephine loves miniature fancy kitchen appliances, anything that will remind him of her uncle Hector! She is also very attached to my dog Lucky.

Reply to this      Posted by: Hector | March 30, 2008 12:11 AM #

What is Josephine's favourite colour?
Does she have a favourite party dress or thing that "screams Josephine"?
Does she have a nickname?
When you think of Josephine, what is the FIRST word that comes to your mind?

Reply to this      Posted by: Valerie | March 29, 2008 11:58 PM #