baking « (y)our food choices™

This 4th of July Birthday Cake was baked in our kitchen. As it turns out, we do not enjoy (suffer?) the sorts of summer temperatures other folks in the USA enjoy. In spite of our California address and proximity to the beach, summer in San Francisco is a chilly affair. “June gloom” turns to July gloom. July gloom gives way to August gloom. You get the picture. So, while the rest of the country celebrates summer in the warmth of their backyards, we don our hoodies, crank up the oven, and bake our hearts out!

Our cake was inspired by, and is a modification of, the gorgeous blueberry cake created by The Little Epicurean. Maryanne is a wildly talented baker who shares her creations on her excellent blog. We wanted to play with flavor and color by creating this patriotic take on Old Glory. Freeze dried strawberries and blueberries bring beautiful color to the cake and frosting. Lemony cream custard adds a nice pale stripe between the blue cake layers. The resulting flavors are bright and fruity and summery.

We’ll be thinking of the rest of you lounging about your backyards soaking up the sun and sweating in your 90+ degree weather. For us, a windy July daytime high of 60 means multiple layers and a blazing oven. But we’ll still be enjoying an ice-cold beer or two as we celebrate the nation’s birthday and all the good stuff summer brings!

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Blueberry Cake with Lemon Mousse and Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Blueberry Cake

Adapted and inspired by: The Little Epicurean

1 6 inch round cake & 1 dozen cupcakes

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
8 oz unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp lemon zest
4 large eggs, room temperature
6 oz kefir, room temperature
7 oz blueberries, pureed and strained
1.2 oz package freeze dried blueberries, unsweetened, ground*
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter, flour, and line with parchment a 6-inch cake pan. Butter and flour a muffin tin or add muffin liners to the tin. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder. Set aside.

Cream together butter, sugar, brown sugar, and salt in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add lemon zest. Add eggs one at a time and mix until fully incorporated.

In a measuring cup, combine kefir, blueberry puree, blueberry powder, and vanilla.

Alternate adding flour mixture and kefir mixture into creamed butter. Mix until just incorporated. Scrape down bowl as needed to ensure thorough mixing.

Divide batter into prepared cake round and cupcake tin. Level batter using a mini offset spatula or the back of spoon.

Bake cupcakes for 15-20 minutes; bake 6” cake for 30-35 minutes until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan on a rack before removing from cake pan. Can be prepared a day in advance or up to a week or more if freezing the cake.

White Chocolate and Lemon Curd Mousse

Adapted from: Epicurious

1.5 ounces white chocolate chips
1 tablespoon plus 1/2 cup whipping cream
pinch of salt
1/4 cup homemade or store bought lemon curd

Combine white chocolate and 1 tablespoon whipping cream in a medium metal or heat-safe glass bowl. Set bowl over saucepan of barely simmering water. Stir constantly until chocolate is soft and almost melted. Remove bowl from over water and stir until white chocolate is melted and smooth. Cool white chocolate mousse base to room temperature. Add the lemon curd and whisk until incorporated. Set aside.

Beat remaining 1/2 cup whipping cream in large chilled bowl until firm peaks form. Gently fold in the cooled lemon curd and white chocolate. Set in the fridge to cool until ready to use,

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Inspired by: The Little Epicurean

1.2 oz package freeze dried strawberries, unsweetened, ground in blender
10 ounces powdered sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
6 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp milk or whipping cream
pinch of salt

Sift the ground strawberries and powdered sugar together, discard the strawberry seeds. Set aside.

Cream together butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Scrape down bowl as necessary to ensure mixture is smooth.

Add vanilla, milk or whipping cream, and blend together. On low speed of the mixer, add the strawberry powder and powdered sugar. Mix until throughly blended and smooth. Add additional milk or whipping cream, 1/2 tsp. at a time, until smooth and spreadable.

Assembling and Frosting the cake

Split the cake horizontally so you have two layers. Add a good amount of the white chocolate and lemon curd mousse to one of the layers and smooth out to the edge. Add the top layer of cake and smooth around the edge to crumb coat the cake with a little of the mousse. Wrap in plastic and place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes or up to a day.

When ready to frost, remove the cake from the freezer and frost with the strawberry cream cheese frosting.

Coat fresh blueberries in warmed apricot jam and strain off the remaining jam. Decorate the cake with the blueberries. Enjoy!

Galettes are one of the easiest things to bake at home. It’s basically a rustic free-form pie. No edges to crimp. No exact measurements of the size and shape of the rolled out crust. And, no worries that the crust will fail and the juices from the pie will overflow. They’re supposed to bubble over a bit.

This recipe is easy to whip up any day of the week, and it’s delicious. We’ve used this recipe since the cookbook and PBS show, Baking with Julia, was first published. We’ve adapted the pastry recipe, omiting the original corn meal (we didn’t have any in the pantry!) and replacing it with oat flour. Oat flour always reminds us of steel cut oats and breakfast and we love it’s nutty flavor.

You can use just about any fruit in liu of blueberries. Exact measurments are unecessary for this style of baking. So have fun with it and include your currious budding epicures. These are hands-on treats!

Blueberry Galette
adapted from Baking with Julia

Pastry
3 tablespoons kefir or yogurt
1/3 cup ice cold water
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup oat flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 14 pieces

11 ounces blueberries, rinsed, dried, and stems removed
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon turbinado sugar
2 tablespoon honey

Mix the kefir and water together, set aside.

In a food processor add the flours, sugar, and salt. Pulse a few times. Take off the lid and add all the butter. Pulse a few more time. You’ll want the consistency of very course sand. You may need to break the butter up with your hands a little. Through the feed tube, with the machine running add most of the liquid. Turn the machine off. Remove the lid and check to see if the dough comes together. If more liquid is needed, pour the contents out in a large bow and finish mixing by hand.

Divide the dough into two pieces. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Squish until it becomes a round disc. Set in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Once the discs are chilled, Carefully unwrap the disc onto the plastic wrap and place another piece of plastic wrap on top of the dough. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough, moving the disc a quarter turn each roll, and flip the dough over and continue to roll. Roll the dough out to about 10 inch diameter, about 1/8 inch thick. Place the rolled dough onto a cookie sheet and place in the freezer for 5 minutes.

Remove the disc from the freezer and remove one of the pieces of plastic. Place the disc on a parchment lined baking sheet with edges. Remove the other piece of plastic. Do the same with the second disc, on the same baking sheet or another one. Place half the blueberries in the center of each disc. Pinch off pieces of butter and put on top of the blueberries. Add a drizzle of honey and sprinkle 1/2 the sugar over the berries. Fold over the edges and press the sides in a little to form to keep its shape. Sprinkle the rest of the sugar around the edge of the pastry.

Place the tray in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the pan from the oven. Allow to cool before serving.

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