My birthday was a couple of weeks ago, but I've been debating whether or not to post this recipe. This cake turned out less than spectacular, but since it was the first birthday cake I made for myself, I thought I'd document it anyway. Although the finished cake was quite tasty with the strawberry jam filling, the cake layers were very dense, almost like a pound cake. The whipped vanilla frosting had so much air in it that it was difficult to smooth it out when frosting the cake. And, the colors just didn't turn out right. The best part of the cake wasn't the cake, but the matcha macarons that I made to crown the top of it. However, that recipe will be in a later post.
Despite my birthday cake disaster, I had a lovely birthday celebration, thanks to MAC. While we weren't lucky enough to get a call from Gary Danko telling us that a reservation had opened up (darn!), MAC took me to Kokkari Estiatoria, located in San Francisco's Financial District, for dinner. He's promised to take me there ever since we started dating, about four years ago. It's quite a popular restaurant, and difficult to get a reservation, especially on the weekend. After dining there, I can understand why.
Kokkari has a very unique ambiance, due to its two distinctly different dining rooms. There's a formal dining room in the front of the house, and an informal dining room, which overlooks the open galley kitchen, in the back. However, I won't spend too much time telling me about the ambiance. That's not why people go there. People go for the food, and it definitely is worthy of the hype. To start, we had one of the daily specials - grilled whole sardines. These sardines were the biggest sardines I've ever seen. They were about seven inches long and grilled perfectly, with a slight char on the edges and a fresh and bright flavor. Our second appetizer was the grilled octopus, which is a mainstay on their menu. I am a big fan of octopus when it's cooked right, so it was a must for me to try. It was pleasantly tender, with no rubbery chewiness at all...simply delicious. I could have had another serving of it. For our entrees, I ordered one of their signature dishes - the grilled lamb chops, and MAC had another special - the whole roasted lamb. No, he wasn't served a whole lamb on a platter, as the name suggests. Rather, he had pieces taken from different parts of the whole lamb, which was slow roasted in the wood burning oven, making it tender and juicy. However, the star of the dinner were my lamb chops. These were the most delicious, MMMM-inducing chops, grilled to perfection, and drizzled with a lemon-herb sauce. They were fabulous, but even more so the next day, according to MAC. You should not pass up the lamb chops at Kokkari. For dessert, we went with another signature dish, which was like a Greek tiramisu, with pistachio creme and a crunchy semolina shredded wheat crust. It was brought to our table with a lighted candle in the middle of it and "Happy Birthday" scribbled in chocolate on the rim of the plate. It was a sweet ending to a lovely and delectable dinner. To add to our experience, the service at Kokkari was first class. Our server playfully offered to show us pictures of the dishes on his iPhone to help us decide what to order. He was quite amusing. Our entire experience at Kokkari was remarkable. I'm glad Gary Danko didn't call, otherwise I'd probably have to wait another four years for MAC to take me there. Besides, I'm sure Gary Danko will be around for our second anniversary in October. Oh, alright..... maybe for MAC's birthday in September.....
My Happy Birthday Macaron Cake
Yields a 3-layer 9" round cake
For the cake:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3 cups granulated sugar
5 eggs, room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.
2. In a bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and shortening until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes on medium speed. Slowly add sugar one cup at a time, making sure to incorporate each cup before adding another. Add eggs one at a time, making sure to incorporate each egg before adding another.
3. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter/shortening mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Add in the vanilla extract. Beat cake batter on high speed for about 5 seconds to fully incorporate all ingredients. Stop mixer and scrape down sides and bottom of bowl, making sure to have all ingredients mixed well.
4. Evenly distribute cake batter between cake pans and place pans into oven. If working with only 2 pans, the 3rd portion of batter may be refrigerate until the first two pans have been baked and cooled. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove pans from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes.
For the Whipped Vanilla Frosting:
3 sticks + 2 tablespoons (375 g) unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes
3.5 cups (400 g) confectioners sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons (45 ml) milk
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt
gel food coloring
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, whip butter for 8 minutes on medium. Butter will become very pale and creamy.
2. Add remaining ingredients, except gel food coloring, and mix on low speed for 1 minute, then on medium for 6 minutes. Frosting will be very light, creamy, and fluffy.
3. Add gel food coloring and mix until color is evenly distributed.
No comments:
Post a Comment