Chocolate Mixed Berry Trifle

Taking advantage of the abundant supply of berries in our supermarket, I decided to make a mixed berry version of Rose Levy Beranbaum's Chocolate Raspberry Trifle for a get together I had with my family last Sunday.  The recipe is from her book Rose's Heavenly Cakes and this one is really perfect for all those who love chocolate and fruit dessert combos which everyone in my family apparently does.  I used a combination of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries totaling the same amount of raspberries required in her recipe (sans the topping) which is about 6 1/2 cups.  Everything about this trifle is truly exceptional--the Chambord syrup-soaked chocolate genoise (which I've made before for Rose's Chocolate Raspberry Genoise), the super-rich creme anglaise, the raspberry-flavored whipped cream and even the way the layers are beautifully exposed in the trifle bowl, showing all of these delicious components stacked together into one very irresistible cake.  

Crazy For Rose's Heavenly Cakes Round #2

Clockwise from bottom left: Woody's Lemon Luxury Layer Cake,  Dulce de Leche cheesecake,  Moist Chocolate Raspberry Genoise, Genoise Tres Cafe, A Taste of Heaven, and Blueberry cheesecake

I baked a few delicious cakes that I got from Rose Levy Beranbaum's cake books for my mother-in-law's family reunion last Saturday and I was told that these cakes were a hit!  I asked my husband, who attended the event, to bring home a few thin slices of each so I could have a taste since it was the first time I ever made these.  Now, after eating all of them (during breakfast I might add LOL) I could now say that they were really good and I know now which ones I would be baking again and again.  I made Moist Chocolate Raspberry Genoise, Genoise Tres Cafe, and Woody's Lemon Luxury Cake from Rose's Heavenly Cakes and another genoise from RLB's Cake Bible called A Taste of Heaven which is her version of a Swiss favorite called Zuger Kirschtorte.  All of the cakes were a little tedious to make and were also in a way a gamble for me since I pretty much have zero experience in making genoise.  But given how well-received the cakes were and how appropriate they were to the formality of the occasion, I'm glad I took the risk!  I am also thankful that I got the chance to practice making genoise and understand the complexities involved in creating these fragile cakes.  When it comes to these cakes, definitely practice makes perfect.

Here are the pics of the cakes as well as my feedback regarding taste, etc.  I wasn't able to take detailed photos of the steps in making each of them (obviously due to their fragile nature) but I did have a little fun with the decor...

RHC: Heavenly Coconut Seduction Cake

Despite living in a country practically surrounded by coconut trees, I don't recall ever eating coconut cake in any shape or form. Coconut and its byproducts have been mainly used here to create sweet native delicacies like pies (made with lard dough) or thickened and caramelized with either rice or certain root crops like cassava. I don't think coconut cake has ever caught on here or is even a dessert indigenous to countries where coconuts thrive the most. Well, not here in the Philippines anyway. I will even be bold enough to assume that this cake is purely a western concoction. But please do correct me if I'm wrong! :)

RHC: Heavenly Vanilla Bean Angel Food Cake with Creme Anglaise and Mixed Berries

The 1/2-pound Tahitian vanilla beans that I ordered from Amazon just got here a few days ago so I decided to use it on the dessert I made for last Sunday's Gutsy Cooks Club dinner. I chose to make Rose Levy Beranbaum's Heavenly Vanilla Bean Angel Food Cake from her book Rose's Heavenly Cakes (can you tell this is my favorite cake book? LOL) which is the vanilla version of her Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake. The cake makes use of the scraped seeds of one Tahitian vanilla bean that you process with half of the sugar (yum!) and since I was left with around 16 egg yolks because of this cake, I decided to pair it with Creme Anglaise, from RLB's Chocolate Raspberry Trifle recipe (also from the same book) which is flavored with even more vanilla beans! I then added blueberries and raspberries, the tartness of which made everything perfectly balanced.

RHC: Swedish Pear and Almond Cream Cake

This is another yummy cake from Rose's Heavenly Cakes that I decided to bake today. It seems like I chose the wrong day to bake as things didn't quite go right with the 2 cakes I made. My Golden Lemon Almond Cake turned out dry and coarse because of the errors I made in the mixing and with this Swedish Pear and Almond Cream cake, the sliced pears failed to settle completely at the bottom of the pan which is the desired result for this cake. I don't know if it's because I used an oddly-shaped bundt pan or because I might have over-mixed the almond cream and made it too watery (which according to Rose, prevents the pears from completely settling at the bottom). You can just imagine my disappointment when I saw some of the pear slices still laying on top of the cake even after it baked.

RHC: Golden Lemon Almond Cake

I was inspired to make another cake from one of my favorite cake books Rose' Heavenly Cakes and the Golden Lemon Almond cake has been at the top of my to-bake list for a while now. I decided to try out my new Nordic Ware 6-cup bundt pan on this cake instead of the usual 10-12 cup just so I wouldn't be tempted to consume more as I'm sure this one is going to be really good!

RHC: Blood Orange Glow Chiffon Cake

I've been wanting to make the Orange Glow Chiffon Cake from the moment I saw it on the pages of Rose's Heavenly Cakes. I love cakes flavored with oranges (or anything citrusy for that matter), and I really love that this one is just made out of pure oranges and nothing else -- not mixed with chocolate like the True Orange Genoise or even chocolate with the added pastry cream as in The Bostini (although both sound very delicious and are on my to-bake list). I just wanted to bake a cake that would be really good to eat on its own without any adornments or fancy frostings but only accompanied by a "billow of orange marmalade whipped cream on the side," as Rose states in her introduction. Sounds so simple and perfect for afternoon tea! I also decided to bake this cake instead of the others I drool over a lot because I wanted to stay away from butter cakes for now since my most recent blood work showed a borderline high cholesterol level (probably due to my recent Holiday binge eating LOL). Well, the question is IF I can stay away!

My RHC Devil's Food Cake Ended in Disaster

I made this cake for the first time during New Year's Eve and noticed that this cake was a little on the tender side (also acknowledged by Rose Levy Beranbaum in the errata section of her blog). In fact, one of the cakes practically crumbled into pieces as I was re-inverting it after un-molding. It was that tender. Another problem I encountered while making DFC was of the cakes sticking at the bottom of the pans even after properly preparing them with parchment and baker's spray with flour. Good thing I was able to scrape off some of the pieces and place them back on top of the cake. The sticking problem led me to wonder if my Baking Spray was the problem. I didn't use Baker's Joy which I believe is made up of shortening and flour. Instead, I used Spectrum Baking Spray which is made of high heat canola oil plus flour. Maybe the magic ingredient is shortening? Sigh...It's so frustrating to not have Baker's Joy here. I had intended to use Wilton Cake release or Wilton baking spray but our local store that carries Wilton products were out of these.

Crazy for Rose's Heavenly Cakes!!

Rose Levy Beranbaum's book Rose's Heavenly Cakes (RHC) is my new favorite cake book! I've had it since late 2010 (really more an impulse purchase as I found the front cover so pretty) and only looked at it with serious intentions of baking some of the cakes during the recent Holiday season. I just got bored with the usual cakes that I bake that I finally decided that I needed to learn some new recipes and techniques through the books that I already have.