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Cooking, Recipe and Food Blog

Le Gateau Sans Rival

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True to its name, this cake is certainly “ without equal “! I’ve loved this cake for many years, and I have to say that it deserves a special occasion to have this on the table.

Although it has a French name, because it was adapted from a French cake called Dacquoise, it is an all-time favourite Filipino cake. A Dacquoise cake is made of almond and hazelnut meringue layered in between luscious butter cream frosting and some fruit. Another variation of this dessert cake is the Marjolaine, which uses chocolate butter cream and chocolate ganache.

Sans Rival on the other hand is made with the same principle of its French counterpart, but uses ingredients readily available in a typical Filipino pantry and supermarket. So instead of almonds and hazelnuts, a Sans Rival cake would have cashew nuts or plain ole peanuts used in the recipe and just layers of butter cream.

The cake is a bit tricky to prepare especially on high humidity days and can be a quite a challenge to cut. Even so, almost every coffee shop and cake shop in the Philippines serves this. Don’t be discouraged with the word meringue, as every cook and chef knows how delicate making meringues can be. With a little practice, I’m sure you can get the hang of it and proud yourself with this gateau. It’s worth every drop of sweat because it is just tres deliceux!


SANS RIVAL CAKE

Ingredients:

Meringue:

6 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 ½ cups cashew nuts, chopped
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

• With a pencil, draw 2 rounds on a piece of parchment paper each round measuring 9 inches. Turn the parchment paper on its reverse side and place on lightly greased cookie sheets. Whip the egg whites until it form stiff peaks. Slowly add the sugar a little at a time, while continuously whipping. Carefully fold in the nuts and vanilla, making sure not to flatten the meringue mixture. You may choose to put this in a icing pipe bag and pipe the mixture thinly onto five 9 inch rounds . Bake it at 350 deg F until it is golden brown. Turn off the oven but leave the baked meringues in the oven for another 2 hours until they are dry and no longer sticky.

Butter cream Filling

Ingredients:

¼ c water
2/3 c sugar
6 egg yolks
1 c butter, room temp
½ c cashew nuts chopped or slivered almonds

Instructions:

• Bring water and sugar to boil until it spins a thread. Pour the sugar mixture gradually over well beaten egg yolks and continue to beat until it forms a thick consistency. Transfer to a bowl and let it chill for about an hour. Cream the butter and add in the chilled egg mixture. Take out your meringue rounds from the oven and start assembling layers.
• Start with the first layer of meringue and fill it with butter cream, repeat with the next meringue layers. Finish the cake by frosting it from top and sides with butter cream and sprinkle it with chopped nuts all over. Chill the cake for another 2 – 3 hours before slicing and serving.

 

Photo Credit: museinthecity

Photo Credit: gtrwndr87

Photo Credit: rbjbrothers

Salted Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream

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Cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Photo from rosy outlook

Those of you who love the divine combination of salty and sweet can rejoice: this frosting, which is rich yet light and sweet yet not cloyingly so, is what you’ve been looking for. It’s Swiss Meringue Buttercream, delicious all on its own, but made amazing with some salted caramel.

The latter adds a new dimension to the frosting, and for that reason I suggest pairing the buttercream with a cake of a simple flavor. Our favorite Vanilla Cupcake recipe, for example- or, if you’re feeling particularly decadent, a dark and dense Chocolate Cake. It works well on cupcakes, but is just as lovely to fill and frost a regular 2-layer cake (which is about how much this recipe makes).

Salty-Sweet Salted Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Think the name is a mouthful? Wait until you try this buttercream.
First, you want to make the salted caramel, which might be daunting if you’ve never made caramel sauce before. But don’t fear. Check out my past post on making perfect caramel, and apply the same technique.

Salted Caramel
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup heavy cream
generous pinch of sea salt

Combine water and sugar in a small saucepan. Over low heat, swirl the pan gently (don’t mix, don’t touch with a spoon or implement of any kind). You just want the sugar dissolved. Once its dissolved, bring the heat up to about medium, and continue swirling every once in a while until it reaches a dark amber. Remove from heat, and slowly pour in the cream, stirring with a whisk. The mixture will spatter, but just be careful and all will come together beautifully. Add sea salt. Set aside until cooled and gorgeous… while you make the

Swiss Meringue Buttercream
3 large egg whites
1/4 cup white granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 sticks salted butter

In the bowl of your electric mixer (stand or hand, but stand is infinitely easier), combine sugar, egg whites and cream of tartar. Set over a large saucepan of simmering water, and constantly whisk (unless you want scrambled eggs. Sweet scrambled eggs.) until sugar is dissolved, and mixture is nice and frothy and white. I use a candy thermometer, because I’m O.C., and bring it to about 160F.

Remove from heat, give the bottom of the bowl a good wipe, attach your stand/hand mixer, and beat on high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the mixture is glossy and holds stiff but NOT dry peaks.

Add butter in tablespoons. Note how your mixture looks curdled (if the butter was cold), and sally forth. It will come together, and give you the most glorious, billowy buttercream.

If the room is warm, it’s a hot day, or your butter wasn’t cold, the mixture may look melted and gloopy even after a few minutes of mixing. If so, take your bowl and stick it in the fridge for about ten minutes. Then re-whip.

Killer Strawberry Frosting

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Those closest to me know that my favorite “flavor” of all time is strawberry. Strawberry ice cream, strawberry milkshakes, strawberry cotton candy- and, perhaps my biggest weakness, strawberry frosted doughnuts.

Mmm.

Today, I’m sharing with you my recipe for Killer Strawberry Frosting. I call it “killer” because this is not some all-natural, made-from-organic-strawberries frosting the sort of which might be found at your local fancy bakery or restaurant- this is good old homemade pink strawberry frosting, made with frozen strawberries, lots of sugar and some strawberry flavoring.

Yes, flavoring- because frozen strawberries simply don’t have enough of an in-your-face strawberry flavor. And this frosting is nothing if not in-your-face.

Of course, you want to use good flavoring. My favorite is strawberry flavoring oil by Lorann (no relation to me).

Killer Strawberry Frosting

1/4 cup frozen strawberries, thawed
2 sticks sweet (unsalted) butter, cold and firm (but not frozen)
3 cups confectioners’ (powdered) sugar, sifted and lump-free
pinch of kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
scant 1/8 teaspoon strawberry flavoring oil
pink food coloring gel or paste (don’t use liquid, which will make your frosting too, um, liquid)

In a food processor or blender, or with a handheld blender, process frozen strawberries until pureed. Set aside.

With your mixer, beat cold butter and salt together until light and fluffy, around 3 minutes.

Slowly add confectioners’ sugar, mixing on low speed until combined. Add vanilla, strawberry oil, and pureed strawberries, and mix on low just until incorporated. Add pink food coloring until frosting is as pink as you like.

Slather this frosting on your favorite doughnut, cupcake or cookie.

Perfect Cream Cheese Frosting

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My two ovens run almost constantly, and as a result it must be at least 80 degrees in my kitchen all the time. This means that making things like meringues and buttercreams a challenge (although my favorite Chocolate Buttercream holds up quite well), and until recently, most cream cheese frosting I’ve made have been too soft and melty, requiring at least overnight in the refrigerator before it could be used for piping.

So I experimented. More butter, less butter, more powdered sugar, meringue powder… I tried it all. One thing never changed, though- and that’s that I always begun by creaming the cream cheese.

So I experimented. I creamed the butter, added the powdered sugar, a few teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, a dash of salt… whipped this up nice and fluffy, and then I added the cream cheese in tablespoons, still cold from the fridge. I let the mixer go for no more than 20 seconds, taking care not to overwhip- and wouldn’t you know it? Perfect cream cheese frosting. Tastes awesome, pipes beautifully.

Perfect Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

1/4 cup (half a stick) unsalted butter (cold, cut up into 1-inch squares)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
pinch of salt
1 8oz. bar cream cheese (Cold, straight from the fridge. Oh, and Philadelphia is the best. Seriously. Don’t even go near the Neufchatel.)

Cream the butter. Add powdered sugar, lemon juice, and pinch of salt. If you like, add about a half teaspoon of pure Vanilla extract. Whip until nice and fluffy, but don’t over-whip.

Add the cold cream cheese in tablespoons, and whip together just until the cream cheese is incorporated. Do NOT over-whip.

Sinfully Silky Chocolate Buttercream

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Chocolate IMBC

This- this silky and smooth, rich but impossibly light buttercream- is my favorite chocolate frosting of them all. Oh, I love ganache of course, and the truth is I’ll never say no to the old powdered-sugar-meets-butter frostings of my childhood- but this buttercream, an Italian Meringue Buttercream with melted chocolate mixed in, definitely tops my list.

So many people seem afraid to try Italian Meringue Buttercreams- but while the recipe may look a little daunting and difficult at first, I promise you: it’s not. Trust me. I’ve made dozens of huge batches of IMBC, and I’ve never had to throw any away.

Sinfully Silky Chocolate Buttercream Recipe
This makes enough to ice a two-layer 9-inch cake, or around 24 cupcakes.

5 Egg Whites (keep the yolks for custard. Or ice cream. Mmm)
1/2 teaspoon + 1/8 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
1/4 cup Water
3/4 cup White Granulated Sugar
1/4 cup White Granulated Sugar (yes, separated)
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (the real stuff, please)
4 sticks Unsalted Butter, cut into pieces

You’ll also need:
a Candy Thermometer, hopefully without a crack in it
a small liquid measuring cup
4 ounces best quality Bittersweet Chocolate, melted (use a microwave for the greatest of ease) and COOLED

Pour the water into a heavy saucepan. On top of that, pour the 3/4 cups sugar. Make an “x” in the middle of the mound of sugar with your finger- this will help distribute the water more evenly.

Over medium heat, begin melting the sugar and water. Now, others will tell you to keep stirring this or to brush down the sides of the pan with a brush, blah blah- I say don’t touch it. Walk away. Well, just a few steps away. You want to get started on the egg whites now anyway.

In the bowl of a stand or hand mixer, put your egg whites and start whipping them. When they look foamy, add the cream of tartar. Whip some more, and once you get to soft peaks, add the 1/4 cup of sugar. You’re going to want to keep whipping this until you get to stiff peaks- but at this point, I usually stop, go over to the saucepan on the stove, and check if everything’s melted. If the sugar and water mixture is clear and bubbly (meaning, no sugar bits), go ahead and stick your candy thermometer in there.

You can resume whipping your whites now- but keep an eye on that thermometer as much as possible. As soon as it hits 246, take the pan off heat, and transfer the syrupy goodness to your liquid measuring cup. Once your egg whites are forming firm peaks, you’ll want to SLOWLY begin pouring the syrup into the whites. Try not to hit the beaters with the syrup as you do.

Et voila! You’ve made Italian Meringue. You can make pavlovas out of this. Hey, you can even make macaron shells out of this. Oooh. But today, we’re doing Buttercream, so…

Get your butter ready. You’re going to want to add the butter to the meringue in one-tablespoon increments. And here’s where everyone freaks out: as you add the butter, your glossy beautiful meringue will begin looking mighty strange. But do not fear- it should all come together when you’re done adding all the butter. And if it doesn’t:

If the mixture looks like a wet melted mess, your butter was probably too soft, your room too warm. Stick the mixture in the fridge for around 10 minutes, and try again.

If the mixture looks like a curdled mess, kind of like scrambled eggs, rejoice! You’re on the right track. Just keep whipping it like crazy– and have faith. Before long, you will have silky smooth awesome buttercream.

At this point, I like to add in 1/4 teaspoon Vanilla extract, for the flavor and the alcohol. Mix that in well, then pour in your COOLED melted chocolate. Mix it in, and mmm… you’ve just made my favorite frosting ever.