Predictably, as the title goes, this post is about birthdays. Birthdays were the most special days when you were a kid. Diwali and Fancy Dress competitions aside, it was the day you could wear color dress to school and hopefully given probability was on your side and there were no other birthdays in your class, you would be the only one. Everyone at school outdid themselves trying to think of what chocolate they would bring that year and all those with birthdays outside the school year bemoaned their loss. As we grew older, chocolates were replaced by small gifts like pencils and erasers. I remember myself giving away a glittery eraser ball which I bought in Bhutan, which did less of its job and did more of looking pretty. There were also those times when you could celebrate your birthday in school, get your parents to bring your cake and cut it in class with all your friends, it was always awesome to get a free period in addition to cake.
At home, I had a birthday party every year all the way from year one until I think I was 12 years old. I had a bunch of friends over and games and cake and snacks. The highlight of my evening was always the bread balls that my mom made. I made them myself twice- once when I was in France and once when I was in Delhi, they are in my head very close to soul food, because it is comfort food closely associated with happy memories for me. I always tried to grab a few before the guests came in.
Anyway, all snacks aside, coming to the most important part of birthdays- cakes, I don't remember too many of my childhood cakes. I remember one Bugs Bunny Cake, the resemblance was too obvious to ignore. I had cake less frequently for my birthday and more frequently for fun. So, this birthday, I decided to put my new found interest in baking to test and make myself a birthday cake.
That is the story of how I came to make Julia Child's Reine de Saba or "Queen of Sheba cake". It was apparently the first French cake that she tasted and fell in love with. I was feeling particularly brave when I embarked on this bake. It helped that a lot of home cooks all over the world had tried this recipe and had a lot of advice and warnings. It was a bit of a longish process to make this cake. There was a lot of mise en place involved. But the final product is so totally worth it. It of course followed the original Julia Child recipe, which was
helpfully posted at
http://theculinarytravelguide.com/2012/06/13/the-jc100-reine-de-saba/
113 g baking chocolate- I used dark
2 Tbsp of fresh brewed coffee decoction
113g butter (softened at room temperature)
2/3 cup + 1 tbsp granulated sugar
3 eggs- yolk and white separated
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup ground almonds
1/2 tsp almond extract- I replaced with vanilla as I didn't read the recipe properly
1/2 cup cake flour- involves substituting a Tbsp of all purpose flour with corn starch (sift it)
How you go about making it:
1. Grease 8 inch cake pan and line with parchment paper.
2. Place chocolate and 2 tbsp of coffee in a small pan and cover it. Place over a larger pan with simmering water until the chocolate just starts to melt. If you leave it too long, it will burn, so take it off and allow it to melt gradually.
3. Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy and beat with egg yolks.
4. Beat egg whites and salt to a soft peak and add sugar and beat to stiff peaks ( culinary trivia- this is a french method of baking, which leavens the cake without use of baking powder or baking soda)
5. Add chocolate which is now melted to a smooth consistency to mixture in step 3. Add the ground almonds and extract and mix well. Fold in egg white and cake flour alternately one fourth by one fourth.
6. Preheat oven to 180 degree celsius. Place batter in cake pan and push up along the circumference. Bake for 25 minutes until circumference hardens and cake is still a little oily when tested in the middle with a needle.
This is the best part of the recipe- Glacage au Chocolat ( Chocolate butter Icing)
- 57 g baking chocolate- again dark
- 2 tbsp fresh brewed coffee
- 5 tbsp unsalted butter
- Bowl filled with ice cubes and water covering them
Use same procedure mentioned in step 2 to melt chocolate to a smooth mixture. Add butter tbsp by tbsp and beat to mix well. Beat over ice and water until it cools to spreading consistency. Spread over the cake with a spatula.
Now your cake is all shiny and ready to eat. Makes for a perfect birthday cake.
