HCB: Designer Chocolate Baby Grands
Monday, July 26, 2010
And I’m back! This week’s HCB choice was baby cakes… CHOCOLATE baby cakes and covered with my favorite piano glaze – which I love to do and was introduce to the technique back with the Chocolate Apricot Roll and then again with the Bernachon Palets D’Or Gateau.
These cakes were pretty easy to put together and they are a marriage in chocolate heaven!
Dissolving the cocoa with hot water is becoming the way I forever will do chocolate cakes. However, this as happen to me before and I thought it was a mistake on my part, but it happen again when I did it here. The recipe calls for the cocoa and ¼ cup of hot water to be combined until a smooth consistency. Which for me did not happen. Instead, I'm finding that the ¼ cup of water to the ration of cocoa is always short and when I mix them up the end results does NOT end up smooth, but a very heavy paste. And that is NOT what I’m supposed to end up with. I had to add about 1 tablespoon or 2 in addition in order to get it to the “smooth” consistency that the book tells me I’m suppose to end up with.
I’m using Hershey’s Special Dark Dutch & Natural Cocoa and I thinking maybe that is the problem? Anyone else has this hitch?
I used regular cupcake liners, not fancy ones, plus that step of taking out the liner before covering them with the ganache and then the chocolate glaze seems like an over-kill step – totally unnecessary. I did have a total blond moment when I was filling up my baking pan - after I meticulous poured the batter to the ¾ of the way mark on my 12-cupcake pan; I realized that the recipe made 14 baby cakes and not 12. Opps!
My cupcakes were a bit over the top and not flat like the book picture. But, they still looked pretty.
After 15 minutes, mine were done and after a round of poking them full of holes, I smoother them with milk chocolate ganache, which oddly enough, I found very relaxing. I guess watching cake soak up the goodness right up is a type of zen-like comfort? who knows, but the cupcakes are totally unto something, I say!
After you let them rest up a bit, then we prepare the Pièce de résistance – the lacquer glaze.
Oh, how I love this glaze, it’s a show stopper. Ever time I make it I know I’m going to get heaps of praises, because it’s just looks stunning on anything that you covered with it. And I have to say, practice makes perfect, because mine was shiny and dark and perfect this time around.
Since I knew I was going to cover my cupcakes with a homemade liner, I simply went to town in pouring the glaze over them, letting them sit for a couple of hours and then, we simply could not hold ourselves and ended up eating half of them.
They were so good. I was afraid they were going to be a chocolate overload, and be way too heavy. But the milk ganache balances it out and instead gives it the prefect chocolate layers for it not to be overwhelming.
Verdicts:
Tom: “Oh yeah rich and wonderfully chocolate – once more love the glaze – you can actually see your reflection when you are taking a bite!”
The little man: “Maybe I can have these for my birthday next year?”
Me: I simply love them; they are the right size for taking care of a all out chocolate craving.
Disclaimer: No recipes are shared in my Heavenly Cake Baker posts, due to restrictions in sharing the recipes by the publisher of Rose's Heavenly Cakes. But, you can purchase the book here.
Reader Comments (26)
OMG these look so so so delicious! I will definitely have to try them !
AWESOME pictures! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the 1st one (also because I love pink and those cupcake liners are so adorable!
You know, I have the same hiccup with the cocoa powder, though for me I chalk it up to me not weighing right. The last couple of times I mix cocoa and water, the mixture is too dense and thick, so I ended up starting over and the 2nd time it looks better. In the recipe, Rose said to sift the cocoa powder, I wonder if this will help? Does unsifted cocoa weighs different than sifted cocoa?
I shifted the cocoa power, and weighted it as well.. but, nope, got a paste. I'm stumped. I mean the final product came out just as good.. .so, I'm not to worry about it. Except that I hate to follow directions and still not come up with what I'm suppose to come up with - call it the perfectionist in me rearing its ugly head.
Fantastic - I made the same mistake (12 instead of 14) the first time I made these cupcakes. I love the way your baby grands turned out. My daughter absolutely loved your last picture and told me I HAD to make them.
:)
ButterYum
PS - it's possible too much of the water in your water/cocoa mixture is evaporating during the cooling process. Are you covering your container while it cools?
ButterYum: It becomes a paste as I'm mixing it in with the correct water portion (I put more water after it becomes a total thick paste - yikes!).. it does not even give me a chance to "evaporate" - as soon as I have it in the right "smooth" consistency, I cover it, I seem to be doing all the right things, it's just not working... Its very frustrating... :) I'm thinking the humidity? the hot weather? the baking gods, kicking my butt? who knows!
And yes, your daughter is right.. make them.. sooo totally worth it!
Ditto to what Monica said, it's not even at the cooling stage yet. It became a paste right away. Maybe it's the humidity? LOL, though not sure about that. But I just started experiencing this the last couple times - which coincidentally is when the weather is warmer, never happened in the winter-time!
Monica, I'm going to post this as a question on Rose's forum and see if anyone has any idea.. will keep you posted!
And I'm so glad I'm not the only one with this issue (are we like sisters in previous lives?)
Gorgeous drop dead pictures! I've been wondering about the cocoa to water ratio as well. Valrhona needs less water than Green and Blacks. Like you I add extra until it looks like the right consistency.
The milk chocolate glaze was unbelievable. Isn't it funny how all the HCB kids have great taste in cakes?
Jenn... let us know what you find out.. like I said before... what bothers me is that I'm following directions to a "T" and its not coming out the way is suppose to and frankly it's ticking me off. Told you the perfectionist in me rearing it's ugly head.
Wow..gorgeous shiny glaze and yummy cupcakes!!
Are you measuring by cups or by weight? I find that for cocoa powder, there is a difference if you measure by cup vs weight. Cos by cup it is not very accurate and from what i noticed, that a slight addition of cocoa powder will thicken the consistency to a paste instead of it being smooth. But that's only my guess..
I'm always measuring by weight - and it still turned into a paste!
Will post at Rose's forum tonight with this question....
Gorgeous Monica. Love the sheen on those puppies! Everybody is raving about this choc cake recipe. Will have to try it soon!!
Sorry to hear your cocoa/water issue. I always weigh my cocoa and water, but so does Jenn and she still has the same issue. Try mixing COLD water + cocoa and then heating it, or try using an immersion blender to get it to be smooth... just grabbing at straws here...
Oh...delizioso un black black fantastico, brava !
The people are Rose's forum ROCKS!
I posted my question about the cocoa powder not dissolving. Here's the response:
In my experience, this doesn’t happen with full-fat cocoas (20-24% cocoa butter by weight), but happens every time with low-fat cocoas (10% cocoa butter by weight). The low-fat cocoa doesn’t weigh the same way as the full-fat and you end up with an overly thick hot water paste, a drier cake, and a flavor that is too strong/ out of balance with the rest of the ingredients. I’ve made lots of chocolate cakes that confirmed this pattern, every time I forget to “fix” the low-fat cocoa it happens.
The low-fat, dutched cocoa that I use is about 10% cocoa butter, so to correct the fat content, I use (by weight) 27% unsweetened chocolate and 73% low-fat cocoa powder. I use Scharfenberger unsweetened chocolate, which is about 50% cocoa butter, so this fix brings the fat content up to 22%. My low-fat cocoa is a dutched, organic cocoa from Equal Exchange. The unsweeetened chocolate needs to be chopped fairly finely and combined with the cocoa powder and boiling water.
This fix doesn’t work if the recipe doesn’t have the boiling water step, then you need to get a cocoa that is full-fat, like Green & Black’s or Bensdorpf. They will weigh properly and your paste will be the right consistency (also your cake will be more moist and the flavor, milder and well-balanced).
In The Sweeter Side of Amy’s Bread, a book that Rose promo’d on her blog, they address this issue by measuring the cocoa by volume, instead of weight. Since that only partly addresses the issue, I prefer to correct the cocoa butter content.
The cocoa powder that I use has 1 gr of fat for 7 gr of serving size. So it is on the low side of fat content.
I posted a question back to Julie to say that I like the idea of using unsweetened chocolate, but wonder how do I know how much to use. Will keep ya posted on the response...
wow..Jenn..this is complicated stuff..hahaha..i got lost after reading your 2nd para..:p would be great if you could do a post on this on your blog explaining this.
I used Hershey's before and i don't think i didn't had this problem..maybe i should do a test now..cos most of the time i use varlhona
Jenn... SERIOUSLY! Ok, now I understand what is going on.. Simply put, I'm using cheap cocoa! Tada! Guess I will have to fork over the $9.99 and buy the Droste sold in my local Whole Foods.
And by the way - Thanks for all the great information... you are Awesome
EXACTLY!
Hmm.. I think I'll try Julie's calculation, since I just opened a new tub of cocoa powder. It is amazing all the things you learn as part of RHC and member of Rose's forum. Never have I thought that I will be calculating % of cocoa powder fat!
Faithy - does it make more sense now? Otherwise, I'll try to do a post this week explaining this...
Yum yum YUM!!! I'm droooling!! I'm going to buy this book now. Don't know why I've been putting it off!
Thanks Jenn! I'm very bad in maths! but i think i got the main idea from Monica's comment, ie, means only use expensive cocoa powder and not the cheap ones? lol!
Well, that explains it! I only bought Valhrona cocoa powder after taking a souffle class as Ginger Elizabeth's Chocolates. She is a chocolate genius and did a chocolate taste test at the end of the class. She explained the difference between alkalized and non alkalized chocolate cocoa and offered those in attendance a discount on her bulk buy Valrhona. It's kinda a hassle to drive downtown when I finally ran out and noticed my local grocery store started carrying Green and Blacks cocoa powder, so I bought it. These cupcakes are the first time I've used Green and Blacks cocoa powder. I have to say it's very good, but I prefer Valhrona. It mixes easier. But for ganache, etc I go with Lindt. Those Lindt people really know their chocolate bars. Except Green and Blacks makes a killer white vanilla bean chocolate bar. Unbelievably delicious. Can't remember which Heavenly Cake recipe it was used in, but it took every ounce of will power not to chuck the recipe and just eat the bar!
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2010/02/cocoa_powder_faq_dutch-process_v.html
Incredible explanation on the differences in chocolate.
Great photos, post and educational comments... perfect trifecta!
Your Baby Grands look fabulous. Love your cupcake wrappers too. Did you say that you made them yourself? Good Job.
gosh! you take such wonderful, gorgeous pictures .. and your baby grands are such delight to look at .. bet they tasted heavenly too.
MONICAAAAA....you have outdone yourself with the photos!!!! I look at these and now I NEED another chocolate cupcake!!
Seriously....neeed another....cupcake....
:)