Ice Box Caklettes

One of our favorite cakes in Mimi's Kitchen is an icebox cake. It is a simple dessert with endless flavor combinations. Made with crisp cookies and whipped cream flavored any way you want, this cake takes about 10 minutes to assemble, and the best part is that it has to be made the day before serving. Overnight, the cookies soften in between the layers of whipped cream to create a soft, cake-like texture surrounded by the cream that firms up to create a "frosting" of sorts. An easy 2-ingredient cake that is mandatory to make ahead- what's not to love? We have made this so many times that each of us has our own favorite. I stick with the classic chocolate wafer and vanilla cream, Mr. Mimi loves chocolate with mint, and Boy Mimi would eat an entire coconut version all by himself. 

 

To get all those even layers, you need very thin wafer cookies. You can definitely buy any thin crispy cookie, (we have used a box of ginger thins from Ikea before) but I like to use Alice Medrich's recipe for chocolate wafers. The recipe makes a lot of cookies and they have great chocolate taste. Her instructions call for rolling it into a log and slicing into thin cookies, but that leaves one side a little flat, so last time I rolled it between layers of plastic wrap and used a circle cutter so that all the cookies were an even thickness and size with a perfectly round edge. 

Whether you make or buy cookies, this cake couldn't be easier to make and with all the possibilities for flavors, this cake will remain a family favorite for a very long time. 

Chocolate Wafer Cookies
Adapted from Alice Medrich

Makes 50 to 60 1 3/4-inch round wafers if you roll into a log and slice them. I rolled the dough 1/8 inch thick between two pieces of plastic wrap and got about 95 cookies.

1 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces) all-purpose flour

3/4 cup (2.4 ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder 

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened

3 tablespoons whole milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Combine the flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of food processor and pulse several times to mix thoroughly. Cut the butter into about 12 chunks and add them to the bowl. Pulse several times. Combine the milk and vanilla in a small cup. With the processor running, add the milk mixture and continue to process until the mixture clumps around the blade or the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a large bowl or a cutting board and knead a few times to make sure it is evenly blended.

**Form the dough into a log about 14 inches long and 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Wrap the log in wax paper or foil and refrigerate until firm, at least one hour, or until needed. 

Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut the log of dough into slices a scant 1/4-inch thick (I went thinner, closer to 1/8 of inch. If you’re trying to emulate the store-bought wafers, slice as thin as you can, and watch the baking time carefully, as it might be less) and place them one inch apart on the lined sheets (cookies will spread). Bake, rotating the baking sheet from top to bottom and back to front about halfway through baking, for a total of 12 to 15 minutes. The cookies will puff up and deflate; they are done about 1 1/2 minutes after they deflate.

Cool the cookies on the baking sheets on racks, or slide the parchment onto racks to cool completely. These cookies may be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks or be frozen for up to two months.

** I divided the dough into 4 portions, chilled it and rolled each portion between sheets of plastic wrap to 1/8 thick and cut them with a 1 3/4 inch round cutter. When the cookies were baked they were about 2 inches in diameter.
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Ice Box Cake or Cakelettes

Wafer cookies
whipped cream
garnish- I used a Bailey's ganache on these small ones, but I usually do cocoa or chocolate curls

Whipped Cream:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla

Add all ingredients to a bowl and whip to firm peaks.

Ganache
1/2 cup cream
6 ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped
2 tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream

Place chopped chocolate in a bowl. Heat cream to boiling, pour over chopped chocolate. Let set for a minute. Gently stir until chocolate is completely melted and ganache is smooth. Stir in Bailey's and cool to almost room temperature. You can refrigerate this until you need it. If it is cold or too thick to pour, heat in the microwave for 15-20 seconds. It needs to be warm enough to be able to be poured over the cake, but if it is too hot it will melt the whipped cream so heat in small increments and pour carefully.  
 

To assemble: 

For one large cake, cover the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan with an even layer of cookies. I usually break a few into halves or pieces to fill in gaps, but it doesn't have to be perfect. Cover the cookies with an even layer of whipped cream. Continue layering cookies and cream, until all of the cream is used up, ending with cream on top. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate 24 hours. To serve, release sides of pan, garnish as desired.

  

 For cakelettes: 

I used a piping bag with a 3/8 round tip to pipe even layers of whipped cream between the cookies. Once I had the cookie stacks the size I wanted (5 cookies high), I covered the sides and top with whipped cream  and chilled them for 24 hours. Before serving, I drizzled them with Bailey's ganache.

Foodie Friday

Double Chocolate Tangerine Mousse Cake

I had to share this recipe before the tangerine season is over. I found it in a December Bon Appetit many years ago, but I can't remember what year. It is a light and creamy white chocolate and tangerine mousse layered over a flourless dark chocolate cake. I usually shy away from mousses that use gelatin, because if you use just a tad too much they loose their soft creamy texture and feel rubbery, like jello. But this has just the right amount to help the mousse to hold its shape when unmolded from the pan, and it still has a smooth, light texture. I love the orange and chocolate combination, and the super sweet, home grown tangerines from our yard make this a winning recipe. 

Double Chocolate Tangerine Mousse Cake

via Bon Appetit
Cake
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 9 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 1/2 cup ground toasted nuts: hazelnuts or almonds


Mousse
• 3 cups strained fresh tangerine or orange juice
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 14 ounces imported white chocolate (such as Callebaut or Lindt), chopped
• 6 tablespoons sour cream
• 2 cups chilled whipping cream

Garnish: grated white chocolate and candied tangerines

For Cake:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 1/2-inch-high sides. Line bottom with parchment. Butter parchment. Dust pan with flour. Melt butter and chocolate in heavy large saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth and melted. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar, eggs and ground nuts. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake cake until toothpick inserted into center comes out with very moist crumbs attached, about 45 minutes. Cool completely on rack (cake will fall and crack).


Release cake pan sides. Turn out cake onto work surface. Peel off parchment. Cut off outer 1/2-inch edge of cake. Clean cake pan. Reattach cake pan sides; brush sides of pan with vegetable oil. Set cake in center of pan (there will be space around cake that will be filled in with mousse). Refrigerate cake.


For Mousse:
Boil tangerine juice and sugar in heavy large saucepan until reduced to 1 1/2 cups, about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, sprinkle gelatin over lemon juice in small bowl. Let stand 10 minutes to soften.
Add gelatin mixture to tangerine juice mixture and stir to dissolve. Add 14 ounces white chocolate and whisk over low heat just until melted. Whisk in sour cream. Pour into large bowl. Chill mixture until cool and thickened but not set, whisking occasionally, about 1 hour 45 minutes.
Beat chilled whipping cream to stiff peaks. Fold into white chocolate mixture. Pour mousse over cake in pan, covering top and sides completely. Refrigerate cake overnight.
 Run small sharp knife around pan sides to loosen cake. Release pan sides. Place cake on platter. Garnish as desired.

To candy tangerines:
2-3 tangerines
powdered egg white or meringue powder
water
granulated sugar

Peel and remove as much of the white membranes as possible from the tangerines, separate into segments. Whisk together 1 tablespoon meringue powder or powdered egg white with 2 tablespoons water.
Dip tangerine segments in meringue mixture wipe excess and roll in granulated sugar put on a wire rack to dry.

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FFWD

Although it's still January, here in Southern California we have had some fabulous weather. Our days have been in the mid-70's, and our nights have been perfectly cool without being cold. It's a reminder that Spring is just around the corner and now would be  a good time to get that new swing set for your children or grandchildren, and have it all set up and ready for the longer, warmer days ahead. CSN is the place to do your shopping. CSN has over 200 websites and they sell everything from swing sets  and trampolines to patio furniture and cookware. Drop on over and take a look, they seriously have something for everyone.

For the French Fridays Round Up, I'll start with the Chicken B'Stilla. This was our least favorite January recipe. As you can see I didn't use traditional phyllo dough in this recipe. I had shredded phyllo so I made this as a casserole and topped it with the shredded phyllo. This was not a big hit with my family. Maybe it was the combination of flavors from the ginger, lemon, coriander and cinnamon, or maybe the sweet (honey and cinnamon/sugar) and savory combination was what we didn't love. It was hard to pinpoint exactly what it was that turned us off, but there are so many other chicken dinners we like, and so many others we want to try that I probably won't give this one a second chance.

Next up is the Paris Mushroom Soup. As a family, mushroom soup is  a favorite and Dori's soup was good, but it still won't replace our  favorite Mushroom Soup, which has a deep woodsy, earthy flavor from dried porcinis. I might try a combination of the two recipes, and see what I can come up with.

Gnocchi. We all love gnocchi, but not only are they calorie laden but they can be time consuming to make and if you don't have the right touch they are heavy and gummy. These gnocchi were quick and easy to make, and light and fluffy (I followed Dori's advice and whipped the last egg white and folded it into the batter). They still had way to many calories for every day consumption, but they were so delicious that I am just waiting for a good excuse to make them again.  

Our one thought was to add some cheese to the sauce instead of just topping the dish with it, in hopes of infusing the cheesy flavor throughout the gnocchi.

Saving dessert for last, we have Michel Rostang's Double Chocolate Mousse Cake.

The cake was full of rich chocolate flavor without being heavy and dense as many flour less cakes can be. Dori had several variation and we chose Dori's favorite, with the baked then chilled mousse layer. Normally when I make a cake like this we fill the center with fresh ripe berries, but none were readily available, so we went with the classic freshly whipped cream.

For the most part the January recipes are one we will be making again, and we are excited for the recipes ahead!

Daring Baker's August Challenge Dobos Torte

Dobos Torte

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonfulof Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular DobosTorte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: ExquisiteDesserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague. It is a long recipe and can be found on the Daring Bakers web site.

Thank You for such an enjoyable challenge.

Although this was not the prettiest cake we have made it, was delicious. We only made 1/2 the recipe, which made 6, 6-inch layers of cake. We used semi sweet chocolate in the butter cream, but next time I would use a darker chocolate to balance the sweetness of the butter cream and the orange syrup. This is a relatively easy torte to make. I used a pastry bag to pipe the cake batter on a cookie sheet, this made for layers of an even size and thickness. When assembling the torte we brush the layers with an orange syrup. The key to this cake is the caramel layer, it need to be thin and crisp. We pre cut the cake layer, and quickly poured the carmel over it. The extra caramel was used for decorations.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

In late summer you never know when zucchini might make an appearance in your meal. Zucchini is great in casseroles, pasta, or bread. It's delicious grilled and topped with olive oil, Italian parsley and garlic. You can even serve it stuffed with cracker crumbs and cheese. But the best way to use up your supply of zucchini is in this easy, moist chocolate cake.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
½ c. soft butter
½ c. vegetable oil
1 ¾ c. sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ c. Buttermilk or sour milk*
2 ½ c all purpose flour
4 tablespoons Hershey’s cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
½ teaspoon each clove, cinnamon and salt
2 c. grated zucchini
¾ c. chocolate chips
1/3 c. chopped nuts.

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour or spray with cooking spray a 9x13 inch baking pan.
In a small bowl mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and spices.
Cream together butter, oil and sugar.
Add eggs, vanilla and buttermilk; blend well.
Add dry ingredients and mix to combine.
Add zucchini and stir until incorporated.
Pour batter in prepared baking pan, sprinkle with the chocolate chips and the chopped nuts.
Bake for 40 minutes. Let cake cool in pan.
When cake is cool drizzle with icing.

Icing
1 tablespoon butter
1 ½ tablespoons milk
½ teaspoon vanilla
Powdered sugar

Combine butter and milk in a mixing bowl and heat in the microwave until butter melts, about 30 seconds. Stir in vanilla. Add enough powdered sugar to make a glaze that forms ribbons when dripped from the end of a spoon. Drizzle icing over the top of the cake.
*sour milk;1 teaspoon vinegar to ½ c milk let sit about ten minutes.

I have made this cake with both sour milk and buttermilk with no difference in the cake texture or flavor.

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