Today is Alan's birthday and in honour of the occasion, I went to work on a beautiful cake. He requested white chocolate, not one of my personal favourites, and as I forgot about his request for liver & onions with lima beans for dinner, I felt I must do my best with the cake. Upping the stakes, I asked our neighbours over for cake and a birthday drink this afternoon.
I chose the "Black & White Chocolate Cake" from the "Baking From My Home To Yours" cookbook by Dorie Greenspan. I made the cake layers this morning and they seemed to turn out ok, maybe a little dry. Then I made a dark chocolate pastry cream (think really good homemade chocolate pudding) to use on two of the layers. Finally, I had to make a white chocolate whipped cream for the very middle of the cake and the icing.
This is where things started to get a little dicey. I melted the white chocolate over simmering water and heated some of the cream in a separate pan. After the cream came to a boil, I poured the cream over the chocolate and let it sit for a minute. Then I gently tried to get the chocolate to come together with the cream. Eventually it did but I was starting to wonder about it, and also about the time that I was running out of.
The recipe said to leave the mixture on the counter until it came to room temperature. It was very important, as anything warmer than room temperature would ruin the whipped cream. Once at room temperature (or was it warmer than it should have been?), I whipped the rest of the whipping cream in my Kitchenaid mixer, just until very soft peaks formed. Then I added the white chocolate-cream mixture to the softly whipped cream. The recipe then calls for you to turn up the speed on the mixer until the whipped cream mixture has stiff peaks. I watched and I watched and I couldn't understand why I wasn't seeing any "peak" action. I kept thinking that maybe just a little longer and the cream would whip up like it usually does.
Then the unthinkable happened. The whipped cream/white chocolate mixture turned to butter before my eyes. I was in shock and it took a minute before I dipped my spoon into the bowl to see if it actually tasted like butter. The curds tasted just like butter, but the whey was a wonderful white chocolatey liquid. I recognized that this was dangerous territory for me, being alone in the house, with a white chocolate mistake staring me in the face. Luckily, I had my wits about me, and I threw most of the mistake into the green bin (recycling for food products). I quickly chose another icing recipe to try, a chocolate malt buttercream, and had the cake assembled well before our neighbours were due to arrive.
Fast forward to cake time with our neighbours, Carmen & Carl, and their three kids. I didn't really enjoy the cake, even though I finished my whole piece (why do I eat things that aren't 100% pleasing to me? It's as if I am afraid of offending the piece of cake in question. Do I need therapy or what!?). The cake turned out to be dry and dull, an unfortunate way to celebrate Alan's birthday, but guess what - it really didn't make a difference to him, or my neighbours, or to me, even. Sometimes, it really is more about the time spent being together, rather than the food. And without flubs now and then, how would I ever learn anything new? Maybe my next project will be making butter - on purpose!
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