The Cake Merchant

Coffee and Donuts Cake

Coffee and Donuts Cake

Happy National Donut Day! Does this mean we can eat all the donuts we want and calories don’t count today? If so, you should make three of these cakes. Actually, I didn’t even know Donut Day was a thing until I saw donuts popping up all over Instagram yesterday. I made this cake a couple of months ago for a silent auction, but hadn’t gotten around to posting it out of sheer laziness, so the stars aligned and it’s coming to you on National Donut Day!

The cake itself is a super simple chocolate cake recipe that I got from here. I doubled the recipe to get a 3 layer 6-inch cake plus about 16 mini donuts (or really, donut shaped cakes). Although this cake recipe is vegan, I used cow’s milk since the frosting is not vegan. Speaking of frosting, coffee swiss meringue buttercream is quite possibly the most heavenly creation on earth. I used 2 shots of espresso from my favorite local coffee shop in the frosting, but you could also use 2 tablespoons of instant espresso powder dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water, or 2 tablespoons of coffee extract (I like Nielsen Massey brand).

The frosting recipe makes a lot, so before you tell me that this recipe makes too much frosting, here’s why (also, please stop complaining about an overabundance of frosting). I wanted to crumb coat the cake and have enough frosting to get a really smooth finish since I knew that people would be bidding on this cake. The leftovers freeze really well (or taste good spooned directly into your mouth). Plus, it’s always nice to have some extra Swiss Buttercream in your freezer.

If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know that I use pasteurized liquid egg whites 99 percent of the time when I make SMB. I’ve tried it with both fresh and liquid egg whites, and while the liquid egg whites whip up slightly fluffier, I don’t find that it makes a difference in the finished product. Plus, you don’t need to heat liquid egg whites past 120 degrees, which makes the whole process go faster. So unless I know I have to make a very large batch of pudding in the near future, liquid egg whites it is. And don’t forget to wipe down all your tools with vinegar before you start. Any traces of grease will prevent your meringue from whipping up properly.

As for the butter, the ideal temperature should but soft, but it should still retain it’s shape. If the butter starts to get greasy or mushy, you may have a harder time getting your SMB to come together. In case your butter is too soft (or your egg whites are too warm), just stick the whole bowl of frosting in the refrigerator and try beating it again.

Coffee and Donuts Cake

Coffee and Donuts Cake
Coffee and Donuts Cake
Coffee and Donuts Cake

For the cake, double the recipe here. This makes a 3 layer 6-inch cake plus about 16-20 mini donuts. You’ll need a mini donut pan like this one. Make the glaze in the recipe below. Dip one side of the donuts into the glaze, and then cover with sprinkles. Let the glaze dry while you frost the cake.

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Momofuku Inspired Chocolate Stout, Pretzel, and Marshmallow Cake

Momofuku Stout Cake-11

My 2nd birthday cake comes to you almost a month after my actual birthday and barely in time for St. Patrick’s day (even though it’s St. Patty’s inspired). I wish I could say I was just too busy to make it in a timely manner, but really, it was put off due to sheer intimidation. This year, I really wanted one of my birthday cakes to be a Momofuku Milk Bar cake. At first, I toyed with the idea of ordering one online. I couldn’t decide on a flavor, so I was going to pretend that I had an upcoming wedding (even though I got married last year) and order the sampler pack. Slightly pathetic, I know, but my idea of a good birthday is eating an entire sampler pack of Momofuku cake in my pajamas while watching cheesy 90’s movies on Netflix. Hawt.
In the end though, I just couldn’t justify paying a shipping cost that was significantly more than the actual cake, so I figured it was time to put on my big girl pants and make one. I will say that once I assembled all of the ingredients and equipment, it was not as difficult as I made it out to be in my head. Time consuming, yes, but not so hard. I also think that making this cake would have been a lot less stressful had I not tried to do everything in a 24 hour period. I would actually recommend spacing it out over 5-7 days if you can, since a lot of it can be made in advance. I would also recommend reading through the entire recipe and familiarizing yourself with the process before you start making this cake.

Momofuku Stout Cake
Momofuku Stout Cake

After browsing the website, I decided on making the Salted Pretzel Cake because I love the idea of beer in a cake. I just recently discovered that I like beer, but only if it’s a darker beer that tastes like chocolate (such as this one). After checking out the Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook from the library, I realized that other than the Pretzel Crunch, the rest of the Salted Pretzel Cake wasn’t in there. I was able to find the cake recipe online, but some of the instructions weren’t clear (or in weight measurements like the cookbook). For example, the recipe states that 3 cups of mini pretzels should be ground down into a powder, but should you measure the pretzels before or after you crush them? It’s a pretty big difference, since 3 cups of mini pretzels is only about 1 cup after it’s ground. There was no stout ganache recipe, but I found one online, and I replaced the burnt honey frosting with a charred marshmallow frosting (inspired by Momofuku’s Malted Chocolate Cake). In the end, I used my best judgement and was happy with the result. I’ve also included a few step by step photos at the bottom of this post as well. Please excuse the awkward lighting and non-prettiness since some were quickly snapped on my iPhone.

Here are the the components of the cake:

The Salted Pretzel Cake: This can be made up to 5 days in advance is kept wrapped in plastic in the fridge. I recommend making it at least a day in advance since it is easier to work with if you refrigerate it overnight.
The Stout Beer Soak: Just go buy your favorite stout beer. I used Samuel Smith’s Organic Chocolate Stout.
The Malted Chocolate Pretzel Crunch: These can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a week or refrigerated for up to one month.
The Stout Ganache: Can be made a week in advance and kept in the fridge. You’ll need to rewarm it in order to spread it over the cake.
The Charred Marshmallow Frosting: This needs to be made and used immediately.

There’s also the equipment. You’ll need:

A quarter sheet pan. I used the 9×13 pan I had and got away with it. It’s a little smaller than a quarter sheet pan and required me to piece a few more scraps together.
A 6-inch cake ring. I used a 6-inch cheesecake pan with a removable bottom that I already had and it worked just fine. A springform pan would work too, but I wouldn’t recommend a regular 6-inch cake pan or anything with a closed, non removable bottom.
Two 3×20-inch strips of acetate. I was able to get 2.5×20-inch strips at my local cake supply store and they worked well. You can also find larger sheets on amazon and cut them down to size.

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Vegan Chocolate Overload Cake

Chocolate Overload Cake

I had a super cool Valentine’s day cake planned for you this year. Truly I did. It looked really beautiful in my head, but in real life, it was a fail. Twice. And by fail, I mean it involved me huddled in the corner of my kitchen with flour covered yoga pants and frosting in my hair. So I ended up totally bah-humbugging my V-Day dessert this year because I just needed to few days to regroup before bringing you a new version of this cake and sharing some final thoughts on my month long vegan challenge. And it’s just in time for my birthday!

Chocolate Overload Cake
Chocolate Overload Cake
Chocolate Overload Cake
Chocolate Overload Cake

Even though I completed my vegan month last week, I still find myself eating mostly vegan because I’ve noticed that I just feel better, lighter, and more energetic. I almost wish this weren’t true so I could just go back to eating a crap ton of cheese and butter. While I’m not ready to switch to a completely vegan lifestyle, this challenge has definitely changed the way I think about food in terms of health, environmental impact, and animal welfare issues. Essentially, I’m just trying to sneak more chocolate into my diet while pretending to save the world. But really, I do want to continue to eat mostly vegan, perhaps by way of the “vegan before 6” diet or maybe be a weekday vegan. I’m not sure yet, but I’d love to hear your thoughts if you have tried anything similar.

The funny thing is that I grew up eating mostly vegan food, but I just never noticed it. My parents are from a part of India where meat or eggs just aren’t a part of the menu. The only time I noticed it was when I wanted to bake cakes for friends or relatives and I felt at a loss without eggs.

Since then, I think I’ve tried every recipe for vegan and/or eggless chocolate cake out there, and the one from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World is always what I go back to. You can use soy milk, rice milk, or almond milk, and it works equally well with natural or Dutch process cocoa powder. I’ve even tried replacing 1/2 cup of the milk with espresso or coffee and I like it even better. I wish that my teenage self had this recipe when trying to make birthday cakes for my grandmother, because it would have saved my family from eating the glue like substance that came out of the oven and pretending to enjoy it for many years.

This recipe makes a 3 layer 6-inch cake, but if you’re not into tall cakes, the PPK recipe makes a 1 layer 8-inch cake. The frosting is made out of coconut cream, which I found at Trader Joe’s (and is a available at most asian grocery stores). You get twice as much cream as a can of regular coconut milk and don’t have to worry about the cream and the water not separating properly. If you can’t find coconut cream, you can use 2 cans of full fat coconut milk and get about the same amount of hardened cream after you refrigerate it for 24 hours.

I have a way of overcomplicating cakes by adding a lot of stuff (hence the overload), but you can simplify it by spreading the frosting in between the layers and serving it without the ganache, mix-ins, or chocolate curls and it would still be delicious. That was my original plan, but then I went crazy with chocolate because eeets mah birthday!

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