S3E4 - Desserts Week

Sweet and Sour Meringue Cake — The Showstopper

It has been a very busy few weeks.

I have been planning more for the move, working, and just trying to live daily life, but also cake making!

I had my nephews birthday party Easter Weekend and he had requested a chocolate cake with strawberry filling that had dinosaurs and a volcano.

Of course I had to make this cake! I love dinosaurs.

And my nephew ;)

Then, the next weekend was my nephews (the same nephews) birthday party with all his friends at the bowling alley.

This time, a cupcake cake shaped as a Minecraft sword was requested.

Done!

Then, the week after that (last weekend), I had a cousin ask me if I could make them a baby shower cake. It needed to be a carrot cake with naked icing, and needed to have flowers and cacti for decoration.

Success!

So, each weekend, instead of working on challenges, I instead celebrated with friends and family.

I do apologize for being away for so long, but because I am leaving so soon, I wanted to spend some time with the family.

In addition, it is not just because I had to make these cakes that delayed my blogging; but, I have also been dealing with some computer issues.

Hopefully we can get those fixed soon; however, right now though, we will make due with that we have.

But more important, let's get started on this bake!

Signature Bake: Torte Cake

Rule: A dessert that consists of multiple layers, which you can fill with jam or cream or mousse or whatever you like.

Rule: More than 20 centimeters in diameter (7.87 inches)

Rule: Looks special from the outside and inside

Rule: Torte's don't use wheat flour, but use some other flour (hazelnut, walnut, ect)

Time Limit: 3 hours

I generally always use flour unless I am baking for my gluten free friends. But when that happens, I just make macarons or almond crust tarts. I have never made a flourless cake, which is surprising, because they are so popular.

Anyway, because I had never made one, I was not sure what I wanted to do. My go-to cake is a chocolate cake with raspberries.

However, I knew if I kept doing those flavor combinations for the judges, they would said I was a bit boring, so I needed to spice it up this time.

I spent, what felt like hours, thinking about what I liked to eat and then I ended up watching something about bees.

Well, bees made me think of honey, of course, so I knew I wanted to do something with honey.

I absolutely love honey and I also really love bees.

So, I am going to take a moment away from this bake to encourage you to do something for the bees. Plant some flowers; buy local and raw honey; or better yet, become a bee keeper! Bees are not just important for your honey intake, but they also pollinate and keep our other plants healthy. So, Save the Bees!

Now, back to the bake; I wouldn't even know how to go about making a flourless, honey cake. So, not a very practical idea, but why not do a drink with honey. Or something that would taste good with honey? Like chocolate?

I know, I went back to chocolate, but instead of doing something with raspberry, I decided to go with espresso frosting and a honeycomb topping with a hazelnut cake base.

By the way, I have also never made honeycomb...

Ready. Set. Bake!

3 hours left -

I butter my pans, toss my hazelnuts in the oven to roast, and start melting my chocolate.

2 hours and 45 minutes -

I am already ahead of schedule!

However, now I need to wait a few moments for my hazelnuts to roast, so I can move onto the actual cake part...

2 hours and 39 minutes left -

Thankfully the hazelnuts toasted quickly.

And they smell delightful!

Now I need to get rid of the skins on the hazelnuts.

I remember watching a video at one point in time where someone put the hazelnuts into a towel and rub them together until the skins fall off.

I hope it was not a dream that I am thinking of, but I am going to test it out anyway.

Can't hurt, right?

2 hours and 32 minutes -

Chocolate has melted!

And it looks absolutely beautifully creamy.

But, I am still skinning these darn hazelnuts.

My plan did not work.

Do you have any ideas?

Oh well, I have to just keep trudging along.

2 hours and 27 minutes left -

Finally, I am ready to grind up the hazelnuts.

Some of them still have their skins, but I am telling you they are not coming off.

Maybe I did not roast them long enough?

2 hours and 23 minutes left -

No matter, they smell amazing and only take moments to grind up.

The rest of the torte should not take long.

I toss all the dried ingredients into the food processor and grind.

2 hours and 20 minutes left -

Easy enough and done..

Now, for whipping the egg whites.

That is definitely harder and is going to take a bit longer...

But, the only way I am going to get it done is to start.

I start cracking eggs, separating the egg whites from the egg yolks, being careful not to mix any egg yolk into the egg white.

I get my egg whites into the metal bowl and start mixing.

2 hours and 10 minutes left -

The separating only took 10 minutes...

And whipping egg whites always takes patience.

Well, honestly, I have no idea if you could ever rush this process. Egg whites only whip so fast.

But onto the next step!

Mixing my butter and egg yolks.

Side tangent, when making this cake, I thought it was so weird that I was mixing butter with my egg whites at some point because I remember reading somewhere that you should never mix your egg whites and fats.

Or, am I just making this up as well?

Oh well, I have never made a torte before, so I am going to go with what I have read.

I add my eggs into my butter mixture one at a time.

Honestly, spending way too much time trying to get a picture of me dropping an egg into the butter mixture.

But I thought it would be cool!

And this is the closest I got...Slightly disappointed.

And also wasted too much time.

2 hour and 03 minutes left -

Too much time.

But I also cut my finger in the process.

Don't worry, no skin or blood was included into this bake.

But the batter is pretty and smooth after being mixed all together.

I then have to fold my chocolate into my egg mixture.

Hopefully it is cooled completed and does not cook my eggs.

But, I stir it all together very slowly to reassure myself that I will not create chocolate scramble eggs.

And it turns into this lovely chocolate pudding looking batter.

I am most positive it would not taste like pudding though...

(No, I did not try it).

By the way, why did the photo above turn out so good without trying?

That is maddening.

Once I have all my chocolate mixed in, I fold in my hazelnuts.

And yes, I folded them into the batter because I didn't want to create a rubbery batter from mixing so much.

I am not sure if that is what would have happened, but I didn't want to risk it.

I then fold in the egg whites.

First, I add one third of the egg whites.

Then the rest!

Creating a beautiful smooth chocolate hazelnut batter.

1 hour and 44 minutes left -

I did all those steps so fast!

It is amazing what you can do when you focus.

Stay focused Melissa...

I spoon the batter into the two round pans that I prepared at the beginning of the bake hoping it will help them bake faster.

And toss them into the oven!

Wooh!!!

I don't think these cakes are going to take long to bake, so I don't want to start something and risk burning the cakes, so I instead drink a cup of coffee (honestly, it was wine...) and wait for the timer.

1 hour and 25 minutes left -

Cakes are already done and they look amazing!

And they smell like heavenly hazelnut sponge disks.

Now, for the honeycomb.

Just a reminder, I have not made honeycomb before.

This will be exciting!

I get my baking soda ready (because I keep reading warnings that I need to make sure it is prepared before I start the honeycomb. I wonder why?...). I also put tinfoil into the bottom of a cake pan, because I am guessing this stuff is going to be messy.

I put all my sticky ingredients and sugar into a sauce pan and turn on the heat.

1 hours and 18 minutes left -

Honeycomb has begun - Dunt Dunt DUNNNNN

Please cross your fingers with me and hope that it goes well.

1 hour and 9 minutes left -

Well, this is definitely time consuming...

I will go ahead and just take my cakes out of the tins for now so they can cool while I wait for the sticky sugary mixture to boil.

1 hour and 4 minutes left -

I am going to do a bad thing and increase my stove temperature...It needs to reach 300 degrees F, but it has been stuck at 250 for far too long.

58 minutes -

Oh poop! It reached 300 quick!

I pull the sticky stuff off the stove, toss in the baking soda and wait for the reaction.

Which does not take long!

I start mixing because I think that is what I am supposed to do.

But then it starts to grow so much!

Like a monster!

I poor it into my pan I lined with tinfoil and smooth it out.

54 minutes left -

Yes, all of that happened in 4 minutes.

I was not kidding when I said this thing was like a monster...

I'm also going to admit, it does not smell nice, but I don't know how it should smell.

I'll just leave it and let it cool and see how it is in a few moments.

I go ahead and start my espresso buttercream frosting.

42 minutes left -

Which thankfully does not take me long, it only took me 12 minutes.

And Oh My Goodness! This icing is the best!

It is like I am eating a delicious cup of coffee.

I probably "taste tasted it" 3 or 4 times before I had to stop myself.

38 minutes left -

However, not everything is perfect.

My honeycomb is flat.

I am pretty sure it should not be like this...

34 minutes left -

Crap!

It is definitely burnt.

It tastes so bad...

I had to reach out to my life line, the person I get to call when I am freaking out.

They get to do that in The Great British Baking Show, right?

I know, I know...they don't, but I had to reach out to Michael and ask for help! I was freaking out.

This honeycomb was supposed to be my thing and I only have 30 minutes left.

Do I use peanuts?

More hazelnuts?

More...something?

Something crunchy?

What do I have in my apartment?

Nothing other than nuts!!!

Why do I have so many nuts!!!!???

Michael didn't know what to do.

I need to get a move on...

I am just going to remake the honeycomb...

I need to.

30 minutes left -

I get all my ingredients ready and put my baking soda off to the side ready to dump into the sugary goo when ready.

I don't start off with a low temperature this time, I start with the temperature I ended with in my first batch and keep an eye on it.

18 minutes left -

Waiting on honeycomb.

15 minutes left -

Still waiting.

13 minutes left -

300 degrees F!!

I pull my goo off the stove. Dump in the baking soda.

Mix for just a moment because I feel like if I mix too much, I will lose my air bubbles again.

Oh no...it is starting to smell like my last batch.

I dumb the growing monster into the prepared tin-foiled pan and leave it be, hoping it will keep the air bubbles and not be burnt.

11 minutes left -

I have to get this cake built.

I place a layer of the torte onto a cake board and slather the top with coffee frosting.

The honeycomb has not had long to set, but the thin ends are crunchy, so I break it into small pieces and sprinkle it over the frosting.

I toss on the next layer of torte and slather it with more frosting.

I don't have much time left, so I break a little more honeycomb off and break it into pieces and sprinkle it all over the top of the cake.

6 minutes left -

I would love to pipe little swirls around the cake and put a piece of honeycomb on top of each swirl, but I don't think I'll have time.

I will need to push through it.

4 minutes left -

I just got my pipping bag filled...

1 minute left -

Crap Crap Crap.

Time!

So, I didn't get everything done like I wanted to, but I got frosting on the top and frosting around the bottom.

Not bad.

But not what I planned.

I still think it is pretty.

Kind of.

By the way, the honeycomb ended up having a beautifully bubbly inside.

I didn't have time to show you earlier.

The Tasting:

It is actually very delicious!

However, extremely rich!

The flavor combination ended up being perfect.

The hazelnuts and chocolate torte tasted absolutely delightful with the coffee frosting. And the honey comb did not have a strong flavor, but it added a great crunchy texture to the cake.

I would most definitely bake this cake again.

But, maybe eat smaller slices...

OR just have a large glass of milk!

Also, it was at least 20 centimeters in diameter. Helps that I have a 8 inch round cake pan!

Side note:

I was going to take this cake to work, so I wanted to finish it with the honeycomb on top, that is why the slice of cake above has honeycomb on top.

Anyway, the picture below is what I hoped to get done in the time I was given.

Technical Challenge: Crème Caramel

Rule: Master the custard and the caramel

Same ingredients - Milk, sugar, vanilla, and eggs

Instructions: 3 steps

1. Make caramel - water (6 tablespoons) and sugar (160 grams) - Make the Custard - Milk (600ml), eggs (4 eggs), vanilla (1 teaspoon), and sugar (26 grams).

2. Use a baim-marie - Water Bath - Bake at 300F for "X" amount of time

3. Cool, flip out, and serve

Time Limit: 2 hours and 45 minutes

I have definitely never made crème caramel; which I realized was pretty much flan.

So, I have never made flan either. Not even boxed flan!

This will be exciting...

Ready. Set. Bake!

2 hours and 45 minutes -

I toss my milk into a pan, start heating it up. Add the sugar and start mixing everything together.

Wow...

160 grams of sugar is a lot of sugar.

Oh crap, I should have started my caramel first...

Double crap, I was only supposed to add 26 grams of sugar to the milk.

I need to slow down.

2 hours and 22 minutes left -

Because now I have wasted a lot of time.

And I really don't want to make this caramel.

I really hate making caramel.

I've tried it a few times and each time, it never reaches temperature.

2 hours 10 minutes left -

The caramel is not turning brown...

I'm slightly worried it won't turn brown in time.

2 hours and 3 minutes left -

Oh my goodness! oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!

I made caramel!

It is brown!

Look how pretty!

I spoon the caramel into the ramekins and the caramel starts to harden so quickly, too quickly.

Hopefully, that is okay.

I worry a little that it is burnt; but honestly, I don't think I have the time to remake the caramel. I need to start the crème.

1 hour and 54 minutes left -

The milk is on the stove and I have made sure to only add 26 grams of sugar this time and the vanilla extract.

As the milk warms, I whip my eggs.

Thankfully, my milk warmed pretty quickly, but I need to tamper my eggs slowly because I don't want to turn them into scrambled eggs.

1 hour and 42 minutes left -

And Voilà!

Beautiful!

Now I need to get the crème caramels into the oven, so they have enough time in the fridge to cool.

1 hour and 34 minutes left -

I put the ramekins into a baim-marie, closed the oven, and now all I need to do is wait.

1 hour and 22 minutes left -

The crème caramel is not set yet.

I mean, that it understandable, it has only been 12 minutes; but I don't really know how long they should have...

I add another 20 minutes and hope I don't over bake the crème.

58 minutes left -

Still baking...

50 minutes left -

They are done! I think...

It is kind of hard to tell...

At least I think it is done.

46 minutes left -

I toss the creme caramel into the fridge and again, all I can do is wait.

Lots of tea!

10 minutes left -

I need to start flipping these creme caramels out...

5 minutes left -

I have only flipped out 2 of these buggers, but they look awesome!

But I have 5 minutes to flip out 4 more.

1 minute left -

2 more left...

15 seconds left -

I have one more to do...

These are kind of a pain in the butt because I have to run a knife around the outside, flip them upside down, shake them until air fills underneath the crème caramel, and detaches from the inside of the ramekin.

The timer is going off, but I am still shaking the last ramekin.

The judges would have definitely been yelled at me "hands off the crème caramel", but after a few seconds I hear the sound you would imagine hearing when taking you shoe out of a big pile of wet mud and the crème caramel is out!

Done!

They are so pretty!

The Tasting:

Honestly, I am not sure how I feel about these little wobbly things.

I love the caramel sauce that was on top; however, the creme itself has such an interesting texture.

Definitely very interesting. But not bad.

Just not something I would choose to eat all the time.

In addition, I could have probably cooked my caramel for a little less time and added a little more caramel to each ramekin too.

I kind of, actually very much, dislike making meringue because it is always so sticky...

I really hope this cake does not end up being a sticky mess...

The Ready! Set! Showstopper: Layered Meringue Dessert

Rule: 4 layers - fill, top, and dress them with anything you like

Time Limit: 4 hours - the time limit was not announced and I was unable to find it anywhere online. However, I looked up the average time on how long it should take to make a meringue layered cake and it was about 4 hours.

Ready. Set. Bake!

When I started this bake, I knew I wanted to make something for two people who have been helping me out a lot lately in Seattle.

As you can imagine, life can get pretty crazy when you are trying to just move to another apartment in the same city, but moving to another country makes life feel like it is going up and down on a roller coaster. By the way, I hate roller coasters…

But, these two people have been nothing but sweet to me. They make sure I go out and eat food. That sometimes I get a beer in my belly. And that sometimes I just sit and think about absolutely nothing and they do not judge.

Now that we are getting to just a few weeks away (specifically 5 and and a half) they have helped me get rid of things and if you know me, I like my things.

So, here is to my two loving and dairy free friends.

4 hours left -

I really hate making meringue. For some reason, every time I go to make it, it becomes super sticky and not very appetizing.

If you read (S1E2) Biscuit Week, you probably read the battle between Melissa and the meringue cookies. Melissa fought hard, but in the end, the rose shaped meringue kicked her butt and left her crying.

Take Two! The Battle Between Melissa and the Meringue Disks.

Who will win this fight?

*The narrator from Mortal Kombat appears in the background* “FIGHT!"*

But first, I need to cut my adorable blood oranges and make candied oranges.

(Side thought, my wonderful boyfriend sometimes reads my blog posts for me to make sure I don't have any weird spelling errors. Well, he found one. In the sentence above, I wrote blood organs... What an awkward and hilarious typo...)

Now, lets get back to the BLOOD ORANGES.

Thankfully, getting everything started does not take too long. It takes a few moments to get my sugar water boiling and then a few minutes to cut up all my little oranges.

3 hours and 39 minutes left -

Now they are left to boil and have a party in the candied hot tub.

Now, let's get the meringue disks started. There is a part of me that wishes I would have started them first, but I also know that 3 hours should be plenty of time.

Hopefully.

3 hours and 13 minutes -

I have all four of my pans lined with parchment paper.

I was going to try to do free-form bakes by piping my meringue into beautiful circles, but I was worried I would get so stuck on piping and making sure it was "perfect", that I would end up wasting lots of time, so I decided to use the bottom of my round spring-form pans. I have high hopes that this will work well.

But, first I have to make my beautiful egg white peaks.

3 hours and 4 minutes left -

I toss all my egg whites into a large bowl and start whisking.

Whisking

Sugar

Whisking

Sugar

Whisking

Sugar

Ect.

Until…

Poof!

2 hours and 51 minutes left -

Look at these beautiful white peaks!

Now for the easy part, spoon the egg whites onto my cake pans (the joy of not getting sticky by using piping bags), and make it as pretty as I can.

However, as I was about to spoon the meringue onto my last disk I realized this last disk is going to be my top and I needed to make it a little more exciting.

So, I ended up using a piping bag.

2 hours and 46 minutes left -

I fill my piping bag with the meringue and pipe little spikes all the way around the disk until the disk is completely full.

Then, as a last minute decision, I decided before I tossed the disks into the oven, I should create a dip into the middle of the disks, so that when I add the cream and filings it sits nicely in the middle of each disk.

2 hours and 42 minutes left -

I toss the disks are in to the oven and bake!

However, they take an hour…

Sleep tight meringue, I hope you dry out.

Now, do I chill and drink a cup of tea (in real life, wine) or do I prepare my fillings?

Well, let’s get everything prepped now before I spend the last 30 minutes freaking out.

2 hours and 17 minutes left -

I am so happy I decided to prep things because these darn pears took me FOREVER!

But thankfully they are all sliced now.

I toss the sliced pears into a bowl and add lemon juice and lemon zest.

I am hoping they will pick up some of the lemon flavor.

Just to add a sour element.

2 hours and 7 minutes left -

The oranges seem to be happy and candied, so I transfer them from the pot to a drying rack; which ends up taking longer than expected, but they look really great.

I don’t think they will dry-out in time, but I think they will taste delicious.

Hopefully...HA!

1 hour and 53 minutes left -

Now let’s get to this delicious coconut cream.

I just discovered coconut cream during my last challenge, (S3E3) Tart Week, when I added it to the mango tart and it was absolutely…*drool*.

I decided to grab 2 different types of cream this time, coconut cream and coconut milk, because I have no idea which one will be better.

I decide to use the coconut cream instead because there is about twice as much coconut fat in the can than in the coconut milk can.I toss the coconut cream into a large bowl and start to whisk.

1 hours and 32 minutes left -

I have been mixing and mixing, adding the powdered sugar and mixing and it is not good.

I need to pull my meringue out of the oven though, they have been in there a little longer than I wanted.

Well, not necessary, pull out, but turn off the oven and crack the door for them to dry out completely.

Peak-a-boo!

Okay, back to the cream.

1 hour and 30 minutes left -

Shoot.

This is not good.

Do you see that?

This cream looks disgusting.

It looks like it has curdled.

I don’t understand why it separated.

Do you?

Do you know how to fix it?

I have to toss it, it looks so bad and I don't even know how to go about fixing it...

1 hour and 15 minutes left -

I grab the coconut milk and separate the cream from the water and toss the cream into a large bowl to whisk.

But, before I start that process again and risk it doing exactly what the coconut cream did, I need to toss my almonds into the oven to toast.

I add a large amount of almonds onto a baking sheet and also some coconut flakes. I get ready to toss them into the oven, but realize my meringue is still in there.

So, before that, I need to take the meringue out of the oven. Hopefully it is dried out enough…

Now, back to the almonds and coconut flakes, they are finally happy and snug in the oven.

I need to start whisking the cream now.

I am just praying to the baking gods that it does not separate.

I add a little powdered sugar and whisk

And whisk.

1 hour and 3 minutes left -

Wooh!! It worked!

I have whipped coconut cream!

Oh shoot! My almonds and coconut flakes!

Gahh...they are burnt…

Okay, let us start the almonds over. I unfortunately don’t have anymore coconut flakes, but that is okay. I have whipped coconut cream.

However, I still need to get my butt moving. I have a strong feeling the assembly will take some time…

I throw away my burnt almonds and coconut flakes and add more almonds to the pan.

As the almonds toast, I work to remove the meringue from the pans.

54 minutes left -

Wow...this is difficult.

Ahh! The almonds.

Gosh darn-it! Why am I not starting a timer?

Okay, one last try or no almonds.

52 minutes left -

I toss the almonds into the oven and add 3 minutes to my timer.

Now, let’s go back to getting this meringue off the parchment paper.

49 minute left -

I am still unsuccessful in getting the meringue off the parchment paper.

Screw it, my bottom layer will be on the cake pan.

I know Paul would be very disappointed, but I have no choice.

Also, I need to get these darn almonds out of the oven.

Well, the almonds are not toasted, but I can’t risk burning another batch, so I am just going to go with warm almonds instead.

45 minutes left -

Starting assembly!

Finally...

I spoon the cream onto the bottom of first meringue.

It already looks so tasty.

On a whim, I decide I want to add a little bit of a sour gooseberry compote.

I just want a hint of sour, so I just pipe a ring around the cream and move on.

I hope it will be tasty.

I then lay my lemon soaked pears onto the cream, then add sliced candied oranges, and then I toss a few “roasted” almonds on top.

38 minutes left -

I can’t just leave these meringue disks on the cake pans or the parchment paper again, especially because they are going to be going into the middle of the cake.

I should have thought this through…

31 minutes left -

Finally figured out how to get the disks off the parchment paper. Just takes a lot of patience and sliding a knife around the bottom of the disk trying to not crack it anymore than it already has.

I place the second disk onto the first disk and start adding my fillings.

The cream.

Then the jam.

Then the pears and candied oranges.

And finally, the “roasted” almonds.

19 minutes left -

I slide my knife under my third disk and slowly slide it on top of the second disk.

We are almost there!

Again, I add the cream, the jam, the pears and candied oranges, and then the “roasted” almonds!

It is definitely coming together.

12 minutes left -

I slide my knife under my last disk that has all the spikes and slide it on top of the meringue stack.

8 minutes left -

I don’t want to add any coconut cream to the top of this disk, but I do know I want to add some color.

I pipe a little jam around the top of the spikes into each divot and then add pieces of candied orange to the top.

3 minutes left -

Wow...I am done...What were the chances of that?

Done!

Definitely not the prettiest, but definitely smells so fresh and just like Spring.

The Tasting

I am going to have to admit it again, this cake is not the prettiest because of all the cracks. However, I don't really know if it is possible to not get cracks. Is it?

However, I do love the colors I picked.

The blood orange is so vibrant and it draws your eyes in.