faux canneles

i’ve been working pretty hard, and i rewarded myself recently with a cannele mold (the smallest one i’ve ever seen! not that i have seen a lot of cannele molds, but it’s smaller than i thought it would be) from amazon. i don’t really have the time to devote to proper canneles, but wanted to test-drive the mold. solution: cake. this is the buttermilk cake from smitten kitchen, which makes a cake that isn’t particularly good for special molds, but that is really quite delicious. it makes a fairly light vanilla cake with a bit of a tang and a nice soft crumb. the crumb, however, is loose enough that it doesn’t really mold that well. i should have made that vanilla rum cake or something, or perhaps tiny poundcakes. beyond canneles, i’m definitely interested in seeing how the larger cakes (like poundcake, which i always do in a bundt) hold up texture-wise in smaller units. with respect to unmolding, this mold does quite well – it’s thin enough that you can invert each mold to get the cake out if it’s being recalcitrant. as you can see from the photo, the cakes brown quite nicely.

instead of raspberries, c had cranberries on hand so we cooked them to smushed-berry stage with some water and sugar, and scattered it in the cake. the tang of the cranberries goes quite well with the cake – it’s a balanced sweet-and-tangy cake. we made this cake with m, a few weeks ago, and used strawberries, which produced an entirely different kind of cake – it was much more strawberries-and-cream in flavor profile.

regardless of the fruit that you use, i highly recommend. i have been using real vanilla in most things since i have tons of beans from the last time i bought em (the place i buy them from always sends free beans), to pretty good effect.

coming up: c and i bought a ham on sale at the supermarket, necessitating a ham date in january when i’m done with thesis. i also have plans to have a birthday party this year! with lots of cute things to eat, of course. j and i have a bolognese date to schedule – we’re going to taste-test the four-hour bolognese that he found online with the fergus henderson 12-hour bolognese that i recently came across. (for reference, the one i make is a six-hour deal.)

raspberry buttermilk cake  (adapted from smitten kitchen)

1c  (130g) all-purpose flour
1/2t  (2g) baking powder
1/2t  (2g) baking soda
1/4t salt
1/4c  (56g) unsalted butter, softened
2/3c  (146g) plus 1 1/2 tablespoons (22 grams) sugar, divided
1/2t pure vanilla extract
1/2t finely grated lemon zest (optional)
1 egg
1/2c  (118 mL) buttermilk
1c  (5 ounces or 140 grams) fresh raspberries, cranberries, or other berries

1. preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.

2. whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. in a larger bowl, beat butter and 2/3 cup (146 grams) sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla and zest, if using. add egg and beat well.

3. at low speed, mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined. spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. scatter berries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons (22 grams) sugar.

4. bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. let cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. invert onto a plate and serve as soon as possible.

[makes one thin 9-inch cake, serves 6-8]