BarneyGrubble
(Aficionado of Beethoven, and Latina singers)
1
Welcome to the COOKING (BAKING) FROM RLB thread!
Please use this thread to report what you make (or have enjoyed making) from her recipes.
Let’s try and follow the recipe format on other reporting threads to make this useful as a future resource:
Please use ALL CAPS for the recipe name, note the name of the book or other source of the recipe, and add a recipe link if you can find one.
If someone else reported on the recipe before you, please REPLY to that post rather than start a new one (so all posts for a given recipe are linked together and can be followed easily via the helpful linking arrows the site software enables).
Pictures are always fun, though not required.
Happy cooking / baking – and sharing!
(There is a Master List of Cooking From threads here for future reference.)
BarneyGrubble
(Aficionado of Beethoven, and Latina singers)
2
WHITE CHOCOLATE NOSTALGIA CAKE
“Chocolatier” magazine, July 1988
Mine is crude compared to the perfection and precision of RLB’s. A 4-layer white chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream between the layers, it was covered with rolled fondant icing, and decorated with royal icing and gum paste flowers.
BarneyGrubble
(Aficionado of Beethoven, and Latina singers)
3
I like RLB’s scientific explanation of processes, and her use of weight measurements (so much faster and accurate). She uses precision scales made by the same company (Metzler) that made the ones I used in physics labs. She would have made a fine engineer! Sorry if I’m gushing!
I think this is lovely. Would be thrilled to have a cake look this good.
BarneyGrubble
(Aficionado of Beethoven, and Latina singers)
6
Thank you.
BarneyGrubble
(Aficionado of Beethoven, and Latina singers)
7
GOLDEN GRAND MARNIER CAKE
From “The Cake Bible”
I’ve made this cake a large number of times, even (like RLB) putting in extra Grand Marnier and shipping them to Germany, California, and Vancouver. I hand-carried one across the border, to the amusement of a U.S. Customs officer.
It’s a super-moist sour cream cake with chopped chocolate pieces in it.
Pictures below are of the cake, a slice, with a ganache glaze, and in cakelette form.
BarneyGrubble
(Aficionado of Beethoven, and Latina singers)
8
CHOCOLATE OBLIVION TRUFFLE TORTE
From “The Cake Bible”.
This cake has just three ingredients: chocolate, butter, and eggs. To intensify the chocolate taste, RLB recommends the addition of reduced raspberry purée, going so far as to state that the reduction should be done by use of a microwave oven, and not on a stovetop, to avoid a caramelized taste.
This is a very intensely chocolate cake (“oblivion” is right) that can only be eaten in very small slices. I’ve used it under rolled fondant for a number of special occasion cakes.
It’s unfortunate that I don’t have a picture of a cut cake; the cake is in stark contrast to the fondant. Below is a picture of a complete cake (in which I used the oblivion torte) inspired by RLB’s Art Deco cake from TCB, in that the layers are offset, and in the use of dots.
BarneyGrubble
(Aficionado of Beethoven, and Latina singers)
9
GÉNOISE CLASSIQUE
From “The Cake Bible”
I’ve seen numerous recipes where melted butter, added at the end is poured into cake batter, and you then have to fold the two together, which is difficult, considering the difference in textures, and you lose volume in doing so.
Not so with RLB. In her génoise recipe you are instructed to take a small amount of batter and whisk it into the butter. This brings the two closer together in texture, and it is then easier to fold them together.
I use a RLB tip from the Cake Bible all the time, which is to lightly grease the cooling rack before turning a cake out in it, which prevents the cake from sticking to it and just makes both the cake and the rack come away cleaner. I usually just use whatever is left on the brush I’ve used on the cake pan.
I find waxed paper useful also when I need to turn a cake that’s topped with e.g. fruit or nuts out and immediately flip it back right side up to cool, in the instances where it wasn’t baked in a springform or loose-bottomed pan. I put a piece of waxed paper on a plate, turn the cake out of the pan onto it, and then place the rack over the bottom of the cake and flip it back over. The waxed paper keeps whatever’s atop the cake intact.
