Fit for a Princess Cake Part II

Trying out the Princess Cake. Photo by John H. Ostdick

Just how hard is it to make that stunning Princess Cake as seen at Gayle's Bakery in Capitola, Calif.? Follow Gayle's recipes for the genoise, pastry cream, whipped cream and marzipan and you'll make it.

It's a two-day effort. Make the components on Day 1, build the cake on Day 2. Here's what I found when giving it a go.

Tinting Marzipan: In Gayle and Joe Ortiz's book "The Village Baker's Wife," they emphasize adding food coloring gradually, kneading in more color by hand as needed, because it's easier to add a little more color at the end than to make a new batch. I added the first amount, found it too light, then globbed more food coloring into the mixer bowl, instead of adding small amounts by hand as directed. That's how I overshot the perfect mint green color. The book does a good job explaining what to watch for, so FD, folks, follow directions.

Weather and Sugar: North Texas has suffered drenching rains. In such heavy humidity, the marzipan on my cake fairly glistened on top. Was it because the hygroscopic nature of sugar in the marzipan and in the confectioner's sugar pulled moisture to the cake's surface, which turned the powdered sugar into a glaze? Hard to say, but before the photo was snapped, the entire surface was snow white with sifted sugar. Look at it now. The wet nature of my marzipan also softened it up, so it melded into the whipped cream underneath, instead of retaining its soft but firm texture. Better that than to turn rock hard by drying out, but still.

Bottoming out: Notice the leaves placed along the cake's bottom? They cover up the marzipan's trimmed edge. It takes practice to get a smooth edge without folds or bad trims, so you may need to hide the evidence. Roll the marzipan too thin and you may get rips and tears. Leave it too thick, and it's harder to smooth out the folds. I couldn't just pop it off the cake and re-roll it, because it goes on top of whipped cream. Give it your best shot. Less is more with the Princess Cake, so I'd rather see the cake without the leaves.

Why the fake flower? Those drenching Texas rains have pummeled our roses, so I didn't have a good topper to snip. Eh bien tant pis, as the French say.

Genoise cake: Vanilla genoise is the only vanilla cake sold at the bakery, the book says. Gayle describes it as a French butter sponge cake, light and eggy, with a wonderful texture. I seem to remember typical genoise being heavy and dry but decided to try Gayle's recipe. I used the soaking solution the recipe suggests. To my surprise, voila! This genoise won me over.

When layering a cake, it can be a bit ticklish to cut one cake into three layers, so consider baking a second batch if you don't like making thin, precise cuts. I made a 9-inch practice cake and then a smaller one, preferring the smaller cake size (like the one in the photo). I trimmed the layers from 9-inch baked cake to 6-inch using a cake ring. Another option is to bake the cake in a sheet pan, then cut the layers from it. Why smaller? Easier to get the dome effect over a smaller surface area.

Pastry Cream: The book includes a recipe, but I have one that never fails me (see below), so I used something familiar. You'll have enough left over to make a second cake if desired. Fill a few cream puffs while ye may.

Whipped Cream: Gayle's recipe = scrumptious.

Jam: If you have no raspberries but you've got fresh apricot, go with that. A bit of tang is a good choice compared with something overly sweet. Balance that sugar with zing fruit. See below for a fresh apricot jam recipe that belonged to Ruth Reichl.

Where I cheated: Had some buttercream on hand, so I piped a ring around the inside layers to help hold in the jam and the pastry cream fillings. That's a trick from pastry school, making buttercream dams. These fillings can squirt down the sides when the weight of the cake layers is added, so I wanted to avoid this. Note to self: If you run out of buttercream, whipped cream is too light a replacement for the buttercream dam. My jam filling did scooch out the sides. If this happens, do what you can to scrape it off, use the freezer to firm things up a bit, then catch your breath. With marzipan over the whole thing, that jam won't leak through as it might with a frosting. Nobody sees. It could puddle slightly at the bottom of the marzipan, though, so gently wipe it off with a paper towel.

Would I make this cake again? Absolutely, with the same recipes from The Village Baker's Wife. I served it to the 23-26 age group and to the 45 and up group. Both liked this cake's lightness quality - not overly sweet or sugar rushy. They gave high marks for appearance and ability of the layers and fillings to work beautifully together. It's a cake fit for a fancy dress party or bridal shower - even as a topper for a tower display of cupcakes or macarons.

What I'll do differently: Avoid making it in wet weather. Follow directions on tinting marzipan. Work more carefully to roll out the marzipan to a consistent thickness, smoothing out the lower edges and trimming with more finesse. Bake the cake in a smaller pan, perhaps make a higher number of layers to emphasize the dome effect. Use a tart raspberry jam. Try Gayle's pastry cream.

Final note: Short shelf like on this cake, so plan for it. Best served the day it's made, but it should hold in the fridge, boxed, for two days.

Now go dream up a tea party and march out this royal confection; in fact, get a paper doily for it like they do at Gayle's Bakery.

Next up: Let's try Gayle's Rich Chocolate Cake with the devil's food interior and ganache blanket. Because hey, the book says it never fails to impress and astound, two awesome qualities every cake should aspire to. The recipe even includes my friend apricot jam.

In the previous post Fit for a Princess, I mentioned waiting more than 20 years to visit Gayle's Bakery in person. Words escape me. The sound of my jaw dropping to the floor should tell you everything to know about the quality of what they do.

Julie Powell had something when she worked through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and it became a movie. For me, think I'll just hang out in The Village Baker's Wife for a year now that I've seen the pastries up close. Know what's on the book's cover?

Princess Cake.

Did you know: Joe Ortiz knew Julia Child and was one of the bakers chosen to tape segments for the PBS series Baking With Julia. He carried five sourdough starters from Capitola to Cambridge, Mass., in a carry-on bag through the gauntlet of airport security.

That, mes amis, is devotion to the craft.


Pastry Cream (Crème Patissiere)

Ingredients

Milk, 16 ounces (2 cups)

Sugar, 2 ounces (1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon)

Egg yolks, 1.5 ounces (about 3 large egg yolks)
Eggs, 2 eggs
Cornstarch, 1.25 ounces (3 tablespoons)
Sugar, 2 ounces (1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon)
Unsalted butter, 1 ounce (2 tablespoons)
Vanilla extract, ½ tablespoon

Method

1. Line a shallow pan with plastic wrap, set aside in freezer.
2. In a heavy saucepan over medium high heat, dissolve first sugar in milk and bring just to a boil.
3. In a separate stainless steel bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and whole eggs. Sift the cornstarch and 2^nd sugar into the eggs. Whisk until smooth.
4. Temper the egg mixture by slowly pouring the hot milk into the eggs and stirring constantly. Return the mixture to the stove and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Mixture will thicken within a few minutes. If lumps form, don't panic and don't toss it out. As the mixture cooks, many of them will disappear. Hang with it.
5. Keep stirring as you look for bubbles indicating the mixture is boiling. Cook the mixture for 1-2 minutes, while stirring, to ensure you’ve cooked the cornstarch completely. Remove from heat, add butter and mix until butter is completely mixed in, then add vanilla and stir to combine.
6. Pour the cream mixture onto the shallow pan, cover with plastic directly on surface to prevent crust from forming. If remaining lumps freak you out, throw everything in a blender and process. This should take care of it. Otherwise, know that when you re-whisk the mixture before using, they will disappear. Allow to chill several hours before use. To use, whip the chilled pastry cream until smooth or whisk it thoroughly. It will start out thick but loosen up.

*Note: Although some pastry cream recipes use flour, cornstarch should be used as the thickening agent when the cream is used for a pie so cut slices hold their shape. Flour pastry creams can taste pasty, too.
Tip: Take a cookie sheet and line it with 2 layers of plastic wrap and stick it in the freezer. Then when your pastry cream is done you strain it directly onto the cold tray and spread it out. Fold the plastic wrap up around it into like an envelope and refrigerate it. It cools in no time!
For coffee flavored pastry cream: add 1/3 cup espresso, cooled (or amount to taste) and lightly whisk espresso into chilled pastry cream.
Or, 2 tablespoons of instant coffee powder to the milk in Step 2.
For chocolate pastry cream: For each 12 ounces of pastry cream, stir in 4 ounces melted dark chocolate while the pastry cream is still warm (100 grams chocolate for each 300 grams of pastry cream).
For praline pastry cream: For each 12 ounces of pastry cream, stir in 4 ounces softened praline paste (such as Nutella) while the pastry cream is still warm.

Fresh Apricot Jam (as created by Ruth Reichl)

¼ cup water
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 pounds apricots, including skin, pulled apart, divided 
vanilla bean, optional, or t tablespoon vanilla bean paste
juice of half a lemon

Stir the sugar and water together in a small heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring until clear, 1-2 minutes. Pull apart the apricots, and add half of them to the syrup. Simmer until they disintegrate, stirring, for about 10 minutes. Add the remaining apricots and vanilla bean, and stir for another 5-7 minutes, until the apricots soften.

Remove the vanilla bean.  Slice it the long way, and run a knife along the inside edge to remove the seeds. Stir the seeds into the jam.

Add the lemon juice and cook for another 3 minutes. (My one change here is to use an immersion blender on the jam after it's cooked. I like a smooth consistency as opposed to pieces of apricot.)

This keeps well in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks - I freeze it.