Monday
Jul052010
HCB: Ice Cream Cake
Monday, July 5, 2010
I’m seriously spoiling Tom. The last three weeks he has, thru my baking two of his 3 favorite sweets covered. Cheesecake - DONE! Ice Cream - DONE! Pie - still very scared of that one, but I’m sure I will cover it - eventually.
This weekend the Heavenly Cake Baker choice was the Ice Cream Cake, and I think like most of my baker group, we were all looking forward to it. It was perfect for the 4th of July and it would have worked great into a BBQ event. For us it was going to work great on a long weekend were we did not have any plans except stay at home (for me) and watch a lot of TV. It also did not help that it has not stopped raining here in Florida since last Thursday.
When I read the recipe, I knew I wanted to pair it with another ice cream option from my new ice cream book by David Lebovitz, The Perfect Scoop, which let me tell you so far it has not failed me with any of the choices I have chosen to make. I wanted something totally out of the normal and the Zabaglione Gelato just called out to me plus it turn out to be a match made in heaven (Tom’s words) but, I do have to say the pairing of the dark chocolate cake with the Marsala based gelato was A-mazing.
The cake base was done with the recipe from the German Chocolate Cake. The plan was to half the recipe, since Tom was going to work right thru the weekend, and I was going to be in Orlando, Florida for a work related training most of the week. I wanted have something small, that we could eat (and finish) during the weekend and not end up throwing out during the week - which now sounds totally ridiculous after tasting the cake - because you want to have AS MUCH as this cake around as you can have.
I stared with making the ice cream on Friday night, to make sure it was going to be ready for filling the cake on Saturday. The ice cream took me about 15 minutes to put together and about 1 hour of chilling time before it went into the ice cream maker for 30 minutes of churning time.
Zabaglione Gelato
adapted from The Perfect Scoop
1 cup whole milk
2/3 cup sugar
big pinch of salt
1 lemon, preferably unsprayed
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
6 large eggs yolks
1/2 cup of Sweet Marsala
Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan. Zest half of the lemon directly into the warm milk. While the milk warms up, pour the cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top.
In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks until light and creamy. Slowly pour the warm lemon-infused milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream. Add the Marsala and stir until cool over an ice bath.
Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator (I left it for 60 minutes), then freeze it in your ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions (mine took about 30 minutes). Once its ready, store in the freezer for over 24 hours.
One of the reasons why I choose gelato over regular ice cream was because of its texture. Unlike regular ice cream, gelato tends to have a creamy texture so it will never freeze into a hard solid. Which meant one thing: I had no need to take out and leave it until it soften in order to fill the cake. I took it right out of the freezer when I was ready to spread it on the cake, and it was perfect.
On Saturday I set out to start the cake
A side note here: I need to give Rose a virtual hug, for giving us her recipes in weights, because it makes it so much easier to half the recipes - Plus, it also helps that I have the BEST APPLICATION EVER on my iPhone in order to do the most complicated math equations in my kitchen - because math and me just are not the best of friends. So, if you have a iPhone, run and get the Kitchen Pro application - you will be using it constantly, because, its like having a math genius at your beck and call in the kitchen.
The cake went pretty easy, even when I had a “uh, uh” moment. I mixed the hot water with the chocolate and put aside, then using a hand mixer (I decided not to even pull the KA for such a small amount of batter) I mixed the eggs and oil and here I thought, wait! this is not right… read the recipe again and realized that I needed to mix the eggs and oil INTO the warm cocoa mixture. Too late now, I added everything together and hoped for the best. Then finish it off by adding the dry ingredients and you end up with a very heavy batter. I baked mine in a loaf pan, since I wanted a long, rectangular ice cream cake.
It was ready about 35 minutes later and I did not even need the timer, since the cooked chocolate smells coming from my oven alerted everyone that the cake was done! I took it out, unmolded it and let it rest for a about 30 minutes at room temperature. Then I popped it into the freezer for about another 60 minutes, in order to make sure it was sturdy enough for the cutting - like Marie I need all the help I can get when it comes time to split a cake into layers. Having the cake be solid helped quite a lot.
The splitting went pretty fast and while a bit crooked it worked perfectly. Another trick I did in order to save me the unmolding headache once the cake was done. Was to line the whole pan with saran wrap in order to just pull it out once I was ready to serve it - it worked like magic.
And serve we did. I let the cake stand in the freezer overnight and then sure enough served it for Tom and his best friend after a quick lunch on Sunday afternoon. After I served it and they had 2 pieces each, I realized that I had totally forgotten the chocolate snowball sauce! They decided that they could have a third piece and wait for the sauce to compare the difference!
Verdicts:
Tom: “There is no need to buy ice cream or ice cream cake ever again - now everything can be made from scratch!”
Keith (Tom’s BF): “This is so good! I will be happy to take some home, even if it melts on the way!”
Me: I love this cake, LOVE IT. Tom and I were literately keeping count in how many piece each of us ate in order to keep in even. Since I’m in Orlando, I know he is going to polish off the last piece, probably tonight. Little does he know that I have some more Zabaglione ice cream stashed away and I plan to make another one of these when I get back home this weekend and there will be NO SHARING. Because, how can you share something as glorious as this?
Tom: “There is no need to buy ice cream or ice cream cake ever again - now everything can be made from scratch!”
Keith (Tom’s BF): “This is so good! I will be happy to take some home, even if it melts on the way!”
Me: I love this cake, LOVE IT. Tom and I were literately keeping count in how many piece each of us ate in order to keep in even. Since I’m in Orlando, I know he is going to polish off the last piece, probably tonight. Little does he know that I have some more Zabaglione ice cream stashed away and I plan to make another one of these when I get back home this weekend and there will be NO SHARING. Because, how can you share something as glorious as this?
Reader Comments (40)
Monica! Gorgeous gorgeous photos!! Soo mouthwatering and tempting!! Yummy! That combo sounds wonderful too! I've been looking all over for Masala! Masala is a type of wine? I can't find it here..i must try to look harder for it and then i can try that ice-cream recipe in the book too! :D
Marsala wine is an Italian wine.. yummy... you can probably find it in the internet (don't know the rules to ship liquor to your area). And I was surprise is how good it worked and the chocolate sauce makes it even better!
I'm sitting in my hotel room, wishing I was home so I can have one of the last pieces, that I'm sure Tom is finishing it off right now! grrrrr.
Thanks Monica..i'll go check out the wine section then, maybe they have it there! I always thought Masala was hard liquor.. lol!..until i read Masala wine..so i wondered if it was the same Masala..lol!
That does it, I'm ordering this ice cream book. Your cake looks spectacular! Have you posted on David Lebovitz's blog that you made it as an ice cream cake? He'd probably get a kick out of it.
Well! This is the best one yet - your cake just looks unbelievable. Wonderful. And how did you dye those eggs? AND, I must rush now to grab my iphone for that application I would certainly have used in the middle of that 3/4 cake caper the other night --- whoosh there I go -- lol
Vicki: if you order it via my store you are going to get a great price and help me buy more eggs in the meantime! I have not posted anything on his site, but now you have given me an idea! Thanks
Joan: Thanks, I really like how the pictures came out as well, the subject was VERY cooperative - did not even melt under the light or anything! I use organic eggs and they have the yellowish yolks ever! They are also very, very yummy tasting!
I love your first picture too! The cake looks like it's begging to be eaten!
You know I did the exact same thing you did with the egg & oil, I mix it in the mixer for 1 minute, then it feels wrong because there's no way it's gonna be like buttercream. Looked at the recipe again and realized that the chocolate mixture was supposed to be in there. So glad this is not a genoise otherwise it would have totally failed.
The zabaglione gelato sounds good. And I do love gelato. And I have a bottle of opened marsala wine in the fridge. Hm.. I should make this again soon maybe? :)
Wow, good call on making the cake in a loaf pan and for using zabaglione gelato! Your cake is so dark and chocolaty! Your photos make me want to pull out my cake and eat some, RIGHT NOW :)
That cake looks amazing! I am wishing I had a piece - it looks so decadent!
Oh, zabaglione...zabaglione is heaven! I can imagine this ice cream and my mouth is watering...I suggest you to try the zabaglione cream to use for cakes or mousse or just for a tartellete, it's delicious...I like it so much more that the plain zabaglione...and with meringues, oh, gorgeous!
I almost forgot, beautiful pictures! stunning...
yum...i love this book and I love what you made. where is the cake recipe from. Oooooo, I have egg yolks in my fridge!
Hi Monica! thanks for your email re: the cake recipe. I LOVE Rose and I have all her books. I will search the book for the cake recipe. Also, thanks for the tip on my email address missing from my blog. Don't know what happened there! Will fix immediately! Have a sweet day! s
My, this looks so good! I want a slice right now!
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Boy, I've got to try that gelato some time. Great photos!
My oh my! These pictures are killing me!! The dark, dark intensity of the chocolate cake!! I am drooling!!!!!
OMG...that cake is larger than life......and it looks oh so delicious!!! now thats a deep dark chocolate, perfect choice of ice cream, and then that fudge sauce...oh my
What can I say? This cake looks AMAZING! I've always wanted to make an ice cream cake, and I must model after this one. I won't be able to use the alcohol, but everything else looks divine. I've never strayed away from my go-to chocolate cake recipe, but I'm seriously thinking about doing it for this cake. YUM!! FANTASTIC photos you have. I love how dark the cake is. Wow. I'm duly impressed.
hiya! where can i get the recipe for the german chocolate cake?
Hi Leo... the recipe I used was from Rose's Levy Beranbaum - Rose's Heavenly Cakes book.
That cake looks so tempting. I really want to make it after seeing yours. Great job!!
That looks amazing. So decadent and delicious. YUM!
Hi,
Wow nice cooking way… nice article from your side
Thanks,
Cygnus
this looks beautiful! but where can i get the recipe of the cake??
Looks delicious.
It has been asked before: where do I find the recipe for the German Chocolate Cake?
Hey Monica you are a truly great baker!...your husband is a lucky guy!!
oh. my. goodness.
I want.
monica I would like to know the recipe of the German chocolate cake.. :S cuz I already search for it in the list of recipes that you have and I didnt found it ... so i hope you can help me cuz I really really want to make this cake :)
This cake looks AMAZING! I've always wanted to make an ice cream cake, and I must model after this one.
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Please share the CAKE recipe. It looks so beautiful dark, almost black. Great.
I understand that you used Rose's German Chocolate Cake recipe.
I don't have the recipe but the cake looks so BLACK and German Chocolate is usually a light brown color.
So, can you share what cocoa or chocolate you used in the recipe to have it turn out so dark? It's beautiful. Thanks for all you share.
@MC.. I usuall use the dark cocoa ... I get it a King Arthur web site.
Ice cream cake is my favorite. You made me hungry dear with this post. Thanks for sharing. Its a great information. I will make this today.
Hi,
It's me AGAIN. I'm patiently waiting for an answer.....please hurry....I want to make this recipe NOW.
1. Did you cut recipe in half and put in a regular one loaf of bread size "loaf" pan?
2. Did you mix KA "BLACK" cocoa into regular Dark cocoa (Hershey??) and at what measurement? (I didn't think one is suppose to use all KA Black only???)
3. Your loaf looks so gorgous and I need to make this like....tomorrow at the latest. Please hurry with an answer.
Your picture is gorgeous and I know it will taste as good as it looks. Thanks.
What's happening? The picture of the Marsala says "Sweet" and your directions say "Dry".
Is there a right or wrong Marsala to buy? I'm not familiar with this beverage.
@ Lexy - to answer your questions:
1 - yes, half the recipe and baked it in a regular loaf pan.
2 - yes, I used dark unsweetened cocoa powder 66 grams of it, which is about 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons
The cake base if from Rose Levy Beranbaum Heavenly Cake and you can find the recipe by going here: http://gourmeted.com/2010/04/13/german-chocolate-cake/
The ice cream is my own.. and to respond to your next comment.. yes, using dry or sweet marsala is fine... you can find it at your liquor store.
Hope this helps you out...
Monica.....thank you for the quick answer. I'm starting the gelato tomorrow...got the Marsala tonight.
I hope it looks as great as yours does.
OK, wonderful pictures and story. Why would you bother posting it when you aren't sharing the recipe?
POINTLESS [for the record, I have 1 of the books mentioned}.
@ Ken - thank you. I'm sorry you feel that it would be pointless for me to post something and not share the whole recipe. As it was noted, this was part of my bake along with Heavenly Cake bakers and based on the publisher agreement we were NOT ALLOWED to publish the recipe from the book.
However, you could find the recipe online by searching for Rose Levy Beranbaum - German Chocolate Cake recipe. I found this link: http://gourmeted.com/2010/04/13/german-chocolate-cake/ which has the recipe noted.
Why do some people think everything printed is their's for the taking? Buy the Book for heavens sake.
I'm sure the commenter above must have their own terrific chocolate cake recipe. What they think they are going to get is that dark dark look. Here's a hint for them....go buy King Arthur's black cocoa mix and any chocolate cake can become black.
@ Annabelle - you hit it on the nose, I used dark cocoa to get that dark results.