New Orleans Lemon Doberge Cake

Story, recipe and photo from Cooking with Herb St. Absinthe

Lemon Doberge Cake

Last Sunday, we made a Chocolate Doberge Cake, the gold standard by which all New Orleans Doberge cakes are held. You could also combine to make a half/half Doberge Cake like Gambino’s Bakery (available for $74.50, including shipping).

Photo from the World-Famous Gambino's Bakery in NOLA

Follow the same recipe for the cake as Chocolate Doberge Cake. the filling is essentially a lemon curd recipe, I would bet that a straight lemon curd would be very good in this cake. The first frosting is a simple flavored decorator’s icing.

However, the traditional Doberge Cake uses a poured fondant frosting, the kind that “snaps” under the knife, I am also including that recipe for purists. I highly suggest that you make the frosting 24 hours before you are ready to assemble your cake. It is also wise to make the filling the day before so that it is nice and chilled when you go to spread it on your cake layers. EDIT: to get the fondant frosting to stick well, many bakers will frost with another kind of frosting first. Use the first frosting recipe as a first layer and then use the poured fondant for better coverage and a more professional looking cake. No one said we didn’t like sugar in New Orleans!

Lemon Filling

1 1/2 cup sugar
6 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup water
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons lemon peel
2/3 cup lemon juice

Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in a saucepan and slowly add water. Bring to a boil while stirring, boil mixture for 1 minute. Add half of hot mixture to egg to temper, then blend in rest of mixture. Bring back to a boil and boil for another minute. Remove from heat and add butter, lemon peel and juice. Refrigerate before filling cake layers.

Lemon Frosting

1 box (1 lb.) confectioner’s sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 cup shortening
2 egg whites
pinch of salt
yellow food dye

Sift sugar and cornstarch over shortening and mix thoroughly. Blend in egg whites, salt and flavoring. You may need to add a little water to thin this out, weather and humidity can affect this frosting. Add dye at the end, add as many drops to achieve desired hue of yellow.

Poured Fondant Frosting

2-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup corn syrup

Heat sugar, water and corn syrup to the soft-ball stage (238°F; 114°C). Pour into a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Wash the candy thermometer well and reinsert into the syrup. Let the syrup cool undisturbed in the workbowl to 140°F (60°C), about 30 minutes. Remove the thermometer.

Add any coloring or flavoring (1 to 2 teaspoons lemon oil and/or 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel, 2 to 4 ounces melted unsweetened chocolate, etc.) and process 2 to 3 minutes, until the syrup completely converts from a glassy syrup to an opaque paste. When thoroughly cooled. store sealed at room temperature for 24 hours. Use or refrigerate for later use.

Linking to Mellow Yellow Monday

Red, white and blue and pink...

I'm not a drinking woman but if I were, I'd have one of these tomorrow. I saw the recipe in the June Coastal Living and thought it looked delish!

Coastal Living Pink Daiquiri

The original daiquiri contained rum, fresh lime juice, and superfine sugar. Ernest Hemingway is credited with the addition of maraschino liqueur and grapefruit juice.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) white rum
• 1 1/2 teaspoons (1/4 ounce) maraschino liqueur
• 1 tablespoon (1/2 ounce) fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) ruby red grapefruit juice
• 1 tablespoon (1/2 ounce) Simple Syrup*
• Garnish: Grapefruit twist

Preparation

Combine first 5 ingredients in an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously, and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish, if desired.

*Simple Syrup: Combine equal parts sugar and hot water, stirring until sugar dissolves. Store in refrigerator until ready to use in mixed drinks or iced tea.

Coastal Living, JUNE 2010

Linking to Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound

A long time coming and well worth the wait...

When I was a senior in high school, my coconut pound cake won grand champion at the fair. It sold at the auction for $300. The recipe came from a relative, Sally, who lived in the neighboring town of Sour Lake. She often brought coconut pound cakes to my father at Christmas. He loved them.

Anyway...

I grew up, moved away and lost the recipe. We searched for it to no avail. About 15 years ago, I wrote to Sally at an address I found on the internet. I got no response. It looked like the recipe was lost forever.

When I was in Texas this past October, I got to visiting with a man from Sour Lake who was shopping at our estate sale. We were talking about family history, and such, when Sally's name came up. He knew her well so I told him the pound-cake story. He took my number and left.

Here's the good part...

Within two hours, my phone rang. He had gone home and found Sally's pound-cake recipe in his mother's recipe box. Can you believe it?

So, without further adieu... I am sharing it with you here so it will never be lost again.

(I'm not re-wording it because I think it's so charming just like it is.)

Sally's Coconut Pound Cake

3 sticks butter or oleo
3 c. sugar
6 eggs
3 c. plain flour
8 oz. sour cream
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. soda
1 pkg. frozen coconut (not canned)
1 tsp. vanilla

Defrost coconut (to avoid failure). Have eggs and butter out at room temperature. Preheat oven to 300. Grease tube pan. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar well. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. Add flour, salt & soda, sifted together, and sour cream and vanilla and beat well. Stir or fold in coconut. Pour in tube pan and bake until done 1 to 1.5 hours, maybe longer.

New Orleans Doberge Cake from "Let's Bake with Beulah Ledner"

Ya'll know I'm not big on baking but I've been wanting to try this recipe for this New Orleans staple, a doberge cake.

Or I could just order one from the famous Gambino's Bakery in NOLA for $64.75 + $4.75 shipping.

Let's be realistic... I can't spend that kind of money on a cake. If I'm going to get one, I am going to have to make it myself.

Photo borrowed from the World-Famous Gambino's Bakery in NOLA

I want to try a lemon doberge cake too. Once I've mastered both, I might even try a half-chocolate, half-lemon version. Gosh, that sounds like a lot of work when I could just order one from Gambino's for $74.50.

On second thought... I should probably make my shopping list now.

Photo borrowed from the World-Famous Gambino's Bakery in NOLA

Doberge Cake

By Judy Walker, The Times-Picayune

February 25, 2009, 4:55AM

The 1987 privately published "Let's Bake with Beulah Ledner" cookbook by Maxine Wolchansky, Ledner's daughter, explains how the "Doberge Queen of New Orleans" adapted the famous Hungarian dobos torta to the local climate and gave it a French-sounding name, doberge (pronounced dough-bash). Ledner retired in 1981 at the age of 87 and died at age 93, leaving a legacy that lives on in her recipes (bought by Gambino's) for this popular cake that can be found and all over New Orleans.

Of course you would want all ingredients to be at room temperature before starting.

DOBERGE TORTE

1 ½ sticks butter
2 cups sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
4 eggs, separated, whites stiffly beaten
1 cup milk
3 teaspoons baking powder
3 ½ cups cake flour (measured after sifting)
Scant teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream butter, sugar and salt until smooth. Add egg yolks, one at a time, and blend until smooth. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk. Beat until blended. Add vanilla and lemon juice.

With a spatula, fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.

Grease 9-inch cake pans. Pour ¾ cup batter into each pan, spreading evenly over bottom. Bake in preheated 375-degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes. Repeat process until batter is completely used, to make eight thin layers.

When cool, put layers together with chocolate custard filling and spread chocolate butter cream icing on top and sides. Chill. Then ice with Always Delicious Chocolate Icing.

CHOCOLATE CUSTARD

2 cups granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons cornstarch
2 heaping kitchen spoons cocoa
4 tablespoons bitter chocolate
4 whole eggs
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon vanilla
4 cups (1 quart) milk

Stir all dry ingredients together in a saucepan, then add the remaining ingredients. Cook over medium heat until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from fire to cool.

CHOCOLATE BUTTER CREAM ICING

2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
½ pound oleo (margarine), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup cocoa
1 ounce square bitter chocolate, melted

Cream sugar and oleo, then add cocoa, then the melted chocolate and vanilla. If too thick, add a little hot water, very slowly, until the consistency is right.

ALWAYS-DELICIOUS CHOCOLATE ICING

1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup white granulated sugar
4 squares melted semi-sweet chocolate
½ stick butter
¾ cup cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and let it come slowly to a boil, then boil about 10 minutes until it thickens. Beat until thick enough to spread.

Hot, spicy and one of the most delicious recipes ever...

When I started this blog, I promised there would not be a lot of recipes, and, for the most part, I've kept that promise. But when you find something this delicious, I think it's just plain mean not to share.

Warning: This is one hot and spicy recipe!

I have added a few personal notes in red.

Photo and recipe from Food Network

Paula Deen's Shrimp Etouffee

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus extra flour, optional
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion
• 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, more if desired
• 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
• 1/2 cup minced green onions, plus extra for garnish
• 1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
• 2 to 3 dashes hot sauce (recommended: Tabasco) ***You will want to do without this unless you really like HOT!
  
• 1 (8-ounce) can clam ***I buy this in jars on the tuna aisle. I use TWO jars!
  
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes (recommended: Ro'tel) ***Ro'tel makes it HOT. If you don't want hot, go with plain, ole' diced tomatoes.
  
• Salt (Cajun seasoning has salt already)
• 2 pounds small or medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (recommended: (31/35 size count) ***I buy the frozen ones.
  
• 1/2 stick butter
• Rice, optional ***Rice is NOT optional if you are making the HOT version.
  
• Diced green onions, for garnish ***I'm just not fancy enough to garnish.

***I chop everything before I start. But you probably already know to do that.

Directions

Note: To make roux, use oil instead of butter, because butter burns

Make the roux, mix oil and flour in a large heavy saucepan over low heat. Whisk flour into the oil to form a paste. Continue cooking over low heat and whisk continuously, until the mixture turns a caramel color and gives off a nutty aroma, about 15 to 20 minutes. To the roux, add the onion, green pepper, celery, and garlic and cook over low heat about 5 minutes, until the vegetables are limp. Add the black pepper, white pepper, cayenne pepper, Cajun seasoning, green onions, parsley, and hot sauce to taste. Add clam juice and the tomatoes with their juice, stir to blend. Add the salt, starting with 1 teaspoon, then add more if needed. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Add shrimp and stir. It will take about 3 minutes for shrimp to cook, don't overcook. Remove from heat. Add the butter and stir; the heat from the dish will melt the butter. Transfer the etouffee to a tureen, serving bowl, or if you prefer, over rice. Garnish with the green onions.

• Cook Time: 45 min

• Level: Easy (I would beg to differ. There are A LOT of veggies to chop)
  

• Yield: 6 to 8 as a main course, or 10 to 12 as part of a buffet

Close

Times:

Prep

25 min

Inactive Prep

--

Cook

45 min

Total:

1 hr 10 min

Happy Memorial Day...

I would like to send out a big, heartfelt thank you to all the men and women who have selflessly served, and are still serving, in our military for the sake of my freedom.

I plan to celebrate with buttercream icing. Didn't Martha Stewart do a wonderful job on this cake? I mean, she is Martha Stewart, after all.

I can't wait to see if the local Walmart has some red, white and blue cupcakes. My tastebuds won't know Martha didn't make them.

Meatloaf Muffins...

When I started this blog, I vowed to not include a bunch of recipes or cleaning tips because, well, let's face it, a Domestic Goddess, I am not. But this little time-saving tidbit is definitely worth a mention.

I learned this trick back when I worked for the REA magazine. We had a reader-submitted recipe page and one of our regulars sent us this tip.

Photo from whatscookingamerica.com

Basically, you take any meatloaf recipe and, instead of baking it in a loaf pan, you bake it in muffin tins. Since the "loaves" or "muffins" are much smaller than a standard meatloaf, cooking time is cut down to about half an hour. Brilliant!

Photo from myrecipes.com

This is one of my favorite cooking shortcuts. I love meatloaf but get home late from work so making a normal meatloaf during the week has us eating way too late.

I hope I have satisfied my Domestic Goddess requirement for the month (year, perhaps).

Linking to Rednesday at It's a Very Cherry World