Cake entries for this year's State Fair were due in by 7pm tonight, Tuesday July 25th.
I spent Sunday and Monday literally swimming in butter, eggs and chocolate... but everything was done by late Monday afternoon. Couple realizations...
- I don't have enough refrigerator space to make more than three cakes, or at least three cakes that require refrigeration.
- It's getting more and more expensive to compete at the fair.
- Things go MUCH smoother if I do all the baking on one day and all the frosting the next day, mostly because I'm not trying to use buttercream in a hot kitchen.
- I should look into getting a stand mixer again.
- I should practice recipes more.
So let's start with that last point.
I have been wanting to make this cake since 2016...
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| Photo from The Brick Kitchen |
It's the Momofuko German Chocolate cake. Back in 2016 I found the recipe 3 days before cake turn in and discovered there was no way I could get the requisite ingredients and supplies to make it in time.
I now own the 6-inch cake ring and acetate sheets and I have corn powder in my pantry. The feuilletine I never ordered because it's outrageously expensive - we're talking $28 for an 11 oz bag on Amazon - and I decided I could use vanilla wafers instead. There are a few other problems with the recipe not being Fair legal but I figured out some substitutions for them too.
The other competition concern with this cake is that it's baked on a quarter sheet pan and then the three layers are cut out of it with the cake ring. The geometry of the pan makes it so you can stamp out two complete circles, but then the third circle/layer is made up of some of the scraps that are left over and I didn't think that would compete well.
So... Saturday I went looking for another chocolate cake recipe that I could bake in three 6" pans. I found something that I thought would work and tried it out. It was awful. That was all I had time for on Saturday.
Sunday July 23, 2023
I started the day grocery shopping for all the ingredients I thought I might possibly need in in next 48 hours. I then waited on G to come by so we could go to the Johnson County fairgrounds to pick up our County Fair exhibits. She ended up running late so by the time we got back from the fairgrounds and had dinner it was almost 5pm.
I started baking after dinner. First up was the Chocolate Espresso Stout cake. Everything went smoothly. I cooled and wrapped the layers and moved on.
Next up was a Lemon Poppyseed Cake. This was a new recipe. I had planned on competing the same cherry cake that I had competed in the Cherry Contest at the Johnson County Fair except that the cherry cake recipe I used for the competition included a box cake mix as part of the ingredients and I needed a totally scratch cake for the state fair. The category is Cherry or Other Fruit Cake so the possibilities were endless. Almost everything I found that sounded interesting though had fillings that were not completely Fair legal and I would have to alter them. I felt like I was succumbing to decision fatigue so I finally decided to keep it simple. Lemon Poppyseed with a Lemon Buttercream. No fancy fillings. No fancy or multiple flavors. Don't overthink it. Keep it simple.
The cake baked up beautifully. I had a little bit of left over batter so I made two cupcakes to taste. The texture was great. The flavor was a bit mild but the completed cake would be brushed with lemon syrup so hopefully that will amp up the flavor. I got those layers cooled and wrapped.
Back to the German Chocolate Cake. I looked around for more recipes...
Another cake that I've been wanting to make for quite some time is a French Opera Cake. This cake is usually a rectangular cake with multiple layers including a chocolate ganache layer.
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| Opera Cake Photo from Evil Twin Kitchen |
I had not considered this as a Fair cake in the past because ganache is traditionally made with heavy cream, thus not allowed in a Fair cake. I was looking at the Opera Cake recipe because I was thinking about using the Opera Cake sponge as my cake, then adding the German Chocolate Cake fillings as a sort of a fusion cake recipe. However, it then occurred to me that I could make the ganache with coconut cream instead of heavy cream. Opera Cake it is.
I had the Lemon Poppyseed Cake all done and wrapped up shortly before midnight. I considered going to bed but all the eggs I needed for the Opera Cake were already out on the counter and at room temperature. How long could another cake take?
The sponge for the Opera Cake took 8 eggs - 4 whole and 4 whites. It took me almost 20 minutes to beat the whole eggs into pale thick ribbons with a hand mixer. It took me another 10 minutes to beat the egg whites into stiff peaks. My hand mixer has been doing triple duty this week. Hopefully I don't burn the motor up!
The recipe for the sponge cake was for a 10" x 15" sheet pan so the bake time was 5-10 minutes. Since I had it in 6"pans I parked myself in front of the oven and watched it like a hawk. My bake time ended up being 12 minutes. Then I had to cool the cakes and wrap them. And clean the kitchen.
I went to bed at 2:30 am.
Monday July 24, 2023
I started the day on Monday by making the chocolate ganache as it would need to sit for a while to cool down and thicken. This was the theme of the day. All my cake components needed to be the same temperature for them to play well together so I was either waiting for things to cool down or waiting for things to warm up to room temperature.
Next was coffee buttercream. I needed room temperature butter and eggs. I had 240 degree syrup going into eggs and then whipping them until everything cooled back down to room temperature to add the butter...
Coffee syrup was next. Simmer then wait for it to get to room temperature.
I finally got out the cake ring, then had to rip my kitchen apart looking for my acetate film. Finally found everything and put the Opera Cake together and put it in the fridge to set up.
Next up was chocolate buttercream.
Melt chocolate and set it aside to get to room temperature but still stay liquid.
Same drill with the butter, eggs and boiling sugar syrup.
Got the cake frosted and decorated.
Next was whipped lemon buttercream.
This time I remembered to make the milk flour paste completely smooth before heating it up so I didn't end up with little balls of cooked flour.
Made the lemon syrup.
Got the lemon poppyseed cake frosted.
Finally, I made the chocolate glaze for the Opera Cake. The glaze has to cool to 88-90 degrees before pouring to get that nice smooth finish. Done!
It was 5pm. I was immensely pleased with myself for finishing everything at a reasonable hour and almost didn't know what to do with myself.
Tuesday July 25, 2023
I got all my recipes typed up and cleaned out coolers to transport the cakes.
The last decision was whether to take the acetate film off the Opera Cake before entry or to leave it in place to be removed at judging. What sealed the deal was the fact that I only had two disposable cake boxes and I had three cakes. I decided to put the chocolate cake and the lemon cake in cake boxes and leave the acetate film on the Opera Cake as it's "container". I did go ahead and remove the original film to make sure it came off easily, then replaced it with a clean film.
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| Opera cake without the film |
Wish us luck!
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