Her'es that stunning cake that Carla brought to the June Project Night at Deb's. Check out Carla's notes throughout. Did anyone get a picture of this???
Watergate Cake with Impeachment Frosting
Reprinted
with permission from Vintage Cakes: Timeless Cupcakes, Flips, Rolls, Layer,
Angel, Snack, Chiffon and Icebox Cakes for Today’s Sweet Tooth by Julie
Richardson, copyright © 2012. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of
Random House LLC.”
Photo
credit: Erin Kunkel © 2012
Lightly adapted from Vintage
Cakes by Julie Richardson
Servings: 8 to 16
This cake is a fair amount of work, but it’s worth it! It
requires making pudding, cake, frosting, and brittle, then assembling them into
a towering confection that will halt all conversation around the table. And no,
the frosting does not contain any peaches whatsoever. It does, however, contain
plenty of pistachio nuts.
INGREDIENTS
Pistachio pudding
1 cup (5 ounces) shelled unsalted pistachio nuts
(approximate – I only used 4 3/4 ounces)
2/3 cup (4 2/3 ounces) sugar
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
4 egg yolks (I used large eggs)
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Cake
2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour (I substituted
unbleached cake flour for 2 of the ounces)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (don’t use artificial –
you don’t even want to know how they make that stuff!)
4 eggs (I used large)
1/2 cup whole milk
Impeachment Frosting
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup (8 ounces) mascarpone
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Caramelized Pistachios
1/3 cup (1 2/3 ounces) shelled unsalted pistachio nuts
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) sugar
2 tablespoons water
Small pinch of high-quality sea salt
DIRECTIONS
Pistachio Pudding
In the bowl of a food processor with the metal blade, grind
the pistachios with 1/3 cup of the sugar until finely ground. To keep from
ending up with “pistachio butter,” I ground for a while, then put the nuts into
a medium-mesh sieve. Put the nuts that don’t pass through the sieve back into
the food processor and grind some more. If your food processor is like mine,
you’ll end up with some nuts that just won’t grind fine enough to pass through
the sieve (about an ounce, in my case). That’s okay. Save them in a separate
container and incorporate them into the frosting.
Heat the half-and-half and the ground pistachio mixture in a
medium saucepan over low heat until it’s hot, but not boiling. In the meantime,
in a small, heat-proof bowl, thoroughly whisk together the egg yolk, the
remaining sugar, and the salt. Add the cornstarch and whisk until there are no
lumps.
To temper the egg yolks so you don’t end up with scrambled
egg, slowly pour 1/3 of the hot half-and-half mixture into the yolk mixture
while whisking. Pour the resulting mixture back into the saucepan and gently
cook over medium-low heat, whisking steadily until the mixture begins to
thicken and has been bubbling for about 1 minute. (You’ll need to stop whisking
to check whether it’s started bubbling.) The mixture will thicken quickly.
Pour the mixture through the medium-mesh sieve to remove any
lumps that form. Put a piece of plastic wrap directly on the pudding and
refrigerate for at least an hour and up to 1 day.
Cake
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease 3 8-inch round cake pans
and line the bottoms with parchment paper. (Note: I was just told by a professional baker that you shouldn’t
grease cake pans—the cakes will rise better if you just put a little spray in
the bottom to tack down the parchment and leave the sides alone. I haven’t
tried it yet, but I plan to.) If you can fit all three pans on one rack, center
the rack. Otherwise, put one rack on the bottom third of the oven and one rack
on the top third.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl,
then whisk them to ensure they are well mixed.
Measure a scant cup of pistachio pudding and set it aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, blend the
butter and sugar together on low speed until the ingredients are well blended.
With the mixer on low speed, drizzle in the canola oil and
vanilla until combined. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until
fluffly, about 5 minutes. Stop the mixer frequently to scrape down the paddle
and the bowl with a rubber spatula.
With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs one at a time,
adding the next one as soon as the previous one has disappeared. Add the flour
mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the milk in two parts, starting and ending
with the flour mixture. After each addition except the last, mix until just
barely blended, then stop the mixer and scrape down the paddle and bowl.
After the last addition, stop the mixer before the flour is
completely incorporated. Add the pistachio pudding to the batter and complete
blending with a rubber spatula to ensure that you don’t overbeat the batter.
Divide the batter evenly among the pans (there will be about
1 pound of batter per pan). Smooth the
tops and bake until the cakes are very lightly golden and spring back when
touched (about 22 to 25 minutes).
Cool the cakes in a pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes.
Invert the cakes onto the rack, leaving the parchment on, then turn them right
side up and let them cool to room temperature. (Note: if you haven’t greased the pans, release the cakes by turning
the pan on its side, inserting a thin blade along the inside of the cake pan,
and rotating the pan, not by moving the blade. Again, this is according to the
baker I mentioned earlier—I haven’t tried it.)
Frosting
While the cakes are cooling, make the frosting. Place the
bowl and whisk attachment for a stand mixer in the freezer for about 5 minutes
to chill. (Note: Again from the
baker—this isn’t really necessary.)
Measure out 1 cup of the pistachio pudding and set it aside
in a medium-sized bowl. If you have any nuts that did not pass through the
sieve, you can add some or all of them to the pudding.
Add the cream, mascarpone, sugar, and vanilla to the chilled
bowl and mix on low speed until it’s all incorporated. Gradually increase the
mixer speed to high and whip until firm peaks just begin to form. It’s
important to not over-whip: mascarpone tends to become grainy if it’s
overwhipped.
Gently fold 1/3 of the mixture into the pistachio pudding.
Continue folding the mixture into the pudding in thirds until it’s all
combined.
Caramelized pistachio
Be very careful. Sugar syrup is very hot and it will stick
to your skin and give you a nasty burn!
Grease a baking sheet lightly with cooking spray and set it
aside. You can either roughly chop the pistachios or use them whole. I chopped.
Place the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat and
stir until the sugar dissolves. Bring the syrup to a boil without stirring – if
you stir, the caramel is likely to crystallize. Continue cooking until the
syrup turns light amber.
Add the pistachios and swirl to coat the nuts completely.
Continue cooking until the syrup is dark amber.
Pour the nuts onto the baking sheet and lightly dust with
salt. You can use your fingers (carefully! remember, it’s hot) to separate the
nuts into small clumps or individual nuts. Work quickly because once it’s
cooled, it’s brittle.
The cooled brittle can be stored in an airtight container at
room temperature for up to 2 days.
ASSEMBLY
Remove the parchment from the cake layers. Lay one of the cakes
on a serving plate. Spread about 1 cup of frosting over the layer, spreading
the frosting slightly over the edge of the cake. Repeat with the second and
third layers.
Because of the dairy products in the frosting, store the
cake in the refrigerator until about 1 hour before serving. Garnish the cake
with caramelized pistachios just before serving (this is so the sugar in the
caramelized pistachio won’t dissolve from the moisture in the frosting).
STORING
In the unlikely event
that you have a scrap left over, you can store it in the refrigerator in an
airtight container for up to 3 days.
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