blog — molly yeh

birthdays

red velvet cake

in ,

I rang in my birthday dancing to techno with a gaggle of new girlfriends in the great big shed at the Ballymaloe Litfest. I wore my favorite pastel horsey romper and smelled faintly of Francis Mallman's fire. We laughed, we screamed, we sang. It was nothing like what I'd planned, which was to take a midnight moment by myself in the Castylmartyr gardens with Mahler's Adagietto and layers of fleece and reflection, and then to wake up for an early morning stroll by the ponies and a civilized breakfast on hotel china. Lol. Even though what actually went down on Saturday night came with a gnarly hangover, it was without a doubt one of the best ways I've ever rang in a birthday. I highly recommend it. 

On my birthday I had about six nespressos, a rasher and egg sandwich that was covered in the most beautiful coating of grease, a bite of an apple scone made by Claire, labneh and carrots in the rain, and a cone of pork fat fries covered in rosé vinegar and vodka ketchup. And seaweed! And a Sunday roast with Imen and a side of giggles.

Then there was more techno, like *so much* techno, techno that made me love techno. I slept in all of my clothes and woke up to begin my long journey home, which is where we're at right now (hi from the Minneapolis airport!).

So in other words, this birthday was a very solid 12 out of 10 and I will remember it forever and ever. It included three birthday cakes! (And if Eggboy pulls through with his mission to bake me a yellow cake, it'll be four!) There was a cashel blue cheese cake from sweet Clodagh in a little house by the sea, a fimo clay sprinkle cake from jewhungry, and this red velvet cake that I made before I left. I'm going to tell you more about my Ireland trip very soon! But for now let's focus on cake...

question: what's better than a red velvet cake?

answer: a red velvet cake made with coconut oil!

question: what's better than a red velvet cake made with coconut oil?

answer: a red velvet cake made with coconut oil and topped with a marzipan crown 👑 👑 👑 👑 👑 !!

tbh this is a very standard red velvet situation. the only difference between this and other red velvet cakes is that i used coconut oil instead of butter, which when you use unrefined coconut oil, you get a nice hint of coconut flavor tossed into the mix. a great thing! i went with red velvet for my birthday this year as a nod to my birthday cakes of yore, which were bright red, covered in pistachios, and from buca di beppo. i'd have a big slice on my birthday and then smaller slices for breakfast every morning for the rest of the week. this recipe makes a baby 6" cake but if you'd like a larger one, double it and bake it in two 8" pans. yay, happy birthday to me (and my pops)!!! 

red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting

makes one 6" cake

ingredients

cake:

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tb unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 c coconut oil (unrefined for a hint of coconut flavor, refined for no coconut flavor)
1 c sugar
1 large egg
1 tb red food coloring
1 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
1/2 tsp vinegar
1/2 cup buttermilk

frosting:

4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature
2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
1/8 tsp kosher salt

 

 

clues

to make the cake:

preheat the oven to 350ºf. grease two 6" round cake pans and set them aside.

in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.

in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the coconut oil and sugar until pale and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. add the egg and mix to combine. mix in the food coloring, vanilla, and vinegar. add the dry ingredients and buttermilk in 2-3 alternating additions and beat until just combined. divide the batter between the cake pans, spreading it out evenly, and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. begin checking for doneness at 25 minutes. using a rubber spatula, gently press down the top of the cakes to even them out while they're still hot (this way you won't need to level them). let cool for 10 minutes in their pans and then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

to make the frosting:

cream together the cream cheese and butter in a stand mixer until combined. mix in the powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt. 

to assemble:

stack up the cooled cake layers with a thick layer of frosting in between. frost all over. top with a marzipan crown, if desired.

-yeh!

marzipan marzipan blueberry cake

in

because it's my birthday.

!!

i bought myself these gifts: health insurance, a set of fringe & fettle bowls, and chickens (they will arrive mid-june!)

i am celebrating in this way: in bismarck, for my friend jean's wedding tomorrow! i plan to get a pedicure and help make cookies for jean's rehearsal dinner and drink and hang out with eggboy. 

i will eat: a greasy breakfast sandwich*, cheese fries*, friday pizza, and this marzipan marzipan cake.

i will drink: anything that is placed in front of me. it might have rhubarb simple syrup in it because i brought my own with me to bismarck.

i will listen to: mahler 5*

i will not: use the internet (too much).

*per tradition

last year i got the tastiest cake in the mail. it was so dense and almondy, i just wanted to lie in a bed of it. it was not too sweet and a perfect cake for the mail because it didn't require any frosting and it's one of those that gets better with age. (can i be one of those??? or do we even talk about age on our birthdays anymore? just cake? you're right, just cake.) it was so delicious and unique that it might have been one of the best cakes i've ever had. so this week, i tracked down the recipe, in amanda hesser's book cooking for mr. latte, and, well, covered it in marzipan. because that seemed like the correct thing to do during my birthday week. i also halved it to make it a mini 6-inch situation and added some blueberry jam because st. dalfour's wild blueberry jam is having a moment in my life right now. also almonds + blueberries = a very good thing.

marzipan marzipan blueberry cake

makes one 2-layer 6-inch cake

cake adapted from amanda hesser's almond cake

ingredients

cake:

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 c unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 c sugar

3.5 oz almond paste, cut into small pieces

2 large egg yolks

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 c all-purpose flour

assembly:

about 1/2 c blueberry jam

about 10 oz marzipan

gel or liquid food coloring

sprinkles

clues

cake:

preheat oven to 350 f. grease two 6-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment.

mix together the sour cream and baking soda and set it aside.

in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. add the almond paste and beat at medium speed for 5 minutes. add the egg yolks one at a time and mix until incorporated. blend in the almond extract, the sour cream mixture, and the salt. reduce mixer to low and gradually add the flour until just combined.

divide the batter between the pans and spread it evenly. bake for about 30 minutes, until the tops are browned and the edges shrink from the sides of the pan. the centers of the cakes will likely cave in a bit once they come out of the oven but that's ok. let the cakes cool for a few minutes in their pans and then turn onto a wire rack to cool fully. you can wrap these in plastic wrap and keep them at room temperature for about a week or so. 

assembly:

level the tops of the cakes, if needed. spread a thick layer of jam on one layer and then place the other layer on top. spread a thin layer of jam all over the entire cake. 

roll your marzipan out on a piece of parchment paper into a large circle, about 1/4 inch thick. use the parchment to help get the marzipan sheet over the cake. smooth the marzipan down over the cake and trim the edges. knead food coloring into any excess marzipan and use it for decorations. stick on your decorations, complete the look with sprinkles!

-yeh!

pictured: cake stand // cake server // rolling pin

italian rainbow cookie cake

in ,

my older sister, stoopie, is celebrating her last birthday of her 20s today! oy! it feels like only yesterday that i was underage and romping around with her id, drinking screwdrivers and skim milk white russians as "22-year-old stoopie." we've been celebrating these past few days in chicago with our family, lots of food, and our signature impressions of al dente noodles. she's been asking me every few minutes if i got her this flask bangle as a gift, and i'm starting to think that she's actually serious about wanting one, but too late, i already got her cute earrings. 

speaking of booze though, this year was such a big stoopie year because a few months ago, she passed her first sommelier test!!!! i'm so excited for her to take the next test soon so she can officially be called a sommelier, and so her name and title can kind of rhyme. (phonetically, she will be so-molly-yay-jenna-yay.) one day i'm gonna bribe her to move to grand forks so that she can be the sommelier for my cake house, and we'll host 30-course wine and cake tasting menus.  

speaking of cake, i made her a birthday cake! an almond cake because i have all of these vivid memories of us making almond cakes when we were little. she would always have first dibs on the can of almond paste and if i was lucky, she'd give me a little nubbin of it. our family loves almondy things. we have our valentine's day italian almond cake tradition, but oddly, we never had italian almond cookies growing up.

i didn't even discover these cookies until i moved to new york, and even then, for the longest time, i had no interest in them. i didn't know that they were almond flavored, as i'd only heard them referred to as "rainbow cookies." i'd see them when i went to buy black and white cookies at zabar's or fairway, but i questioned why anyone would buy these artificially colored random looking things when they could buy a black and white cookie. i was skeptical, but the seed was planted in my brain when i saw my little new yorky cousins gobbling them up during rosh hashanah, and then finally, when i was served a fancy freshly made one at torrisi, i was convinced. i discovered that these little guys aren't cookies, they're dense, rich almond cakes, glued together with jam, and cut into perfect little bites. it was the punch of almond that got me, these things are loaded with almond paste.

i became so obsessed that stoop and mum made a batch in (what they thought were) juilliard colors for my senior recital. some time after that, i fished out miniature versions of them from the bottom of a sundae at kutsher's with devra and my cousin eitan, before we even discovered that we're cousins. that year around the holidays, i made a shitton using torrisi's recipe and fed them to the earliest version of san fermin, which was huge and had some lucius.

full disclosure: a younger, less experienced and more stressed out version of myself wrote this about my first time making them. i've since chilled out, but there is some truth in my earlier frustrations: making these cookies/this cake is a process. it takes an entire day if you're fast, two days if you cruise, and maybe even three if you feel like blanching your own almonds and/or making your own almond paste. it's a cake for your holiday break, or one to call in sick for. but, trust, it's worth it.

italian rainbow cookie cake

makes one 8-inch cake

ingredients

6 eggs, separated

1 1/4 c + 2 tb sugar

1 1/3 c almond paste, chopped

2 c unsalted butter, softened

1 tb lemon juice

1 tsp almond extract

1 tsp kosher salt

2 2/3 c all-purpose flour

1 tsp red food coloring

1 tsp green food coloring

1/2 c + 2 tb apricot jam (or 6 tb apricot jam and 4 tb raspberry jam or vice versa)

12 oz dark or semisweet chocolate chips

1 c heavy cream

cocoa powder for dusting, optional

dinosaurs, optional

 

clues

preheat oven to 350. grease and line as many 8-inch cake pans as you have. you'll need to make six layers total. (i have three cake pans, so i baked the layers in two batches, but if you just have two, you can bake in three batches.)

in a large bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. gradually beat in 6 tablespoons of sugar and continue beating until you have stiff peaks.

in another large bowl, beat together the remaining cup of sugar, the almond paste, and butter. add the egg yolks, one at a time. beat in the lemon juice and almond extract, and then gradually sprinkle in the salt. add the flour and beat until combined.

fold the egg whites into the almond paste mixture and then divide the mixture evenly into three bowls. mix the red food coloring into one, the green food coloring into another, and then leave the last one as it is.

divide each of these mixtures in half and pour into separate cake pans. (again, if you don't have all six cake pans, just fill however many you've got, and then cover the batter that you're not using until it's ready to bake.) use a spatula to spread the batter as evenly as you can in the pan and then bake for 10-12 minutes, until the tops are just set, or no longer shiny and wet. let cool slightly in the pans, run a knife around the edges, and then carefully flip onto a greased cooling rack or greased sheet of parchment. bake remaining layers.

when the layers are cool, stack them up on a cake board or plate, spreading 2 tablespoons of jam between each. don't put jam on the top. wrap the sucker tightly in plastic wrap and then refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. 

to make the chocolate ganache, place the chocolate chips in a large bowl. heat the heavy cream until it is just starting to boil, and then pour it over the chocolate. let sit for 30 seconds, and then stir it all together to get a smooth ganache. you can either pour the ganache over the cake or refrigerate the ganache for an hour, whip it up until it's pale and fluffy, and then frost the cake with an offset spatula (this is what's pictured). decorate your cake how you'd like, dust it with cocoa powder, add dinosaurs, and enjoy!

happy birthday, stoopie!!

-yeh!!!