Episode 70 – Pumpkin Cake and Caramel Swiss Buttercream

Episode 70

Prepare for Fall and the ensuing holidays!

October 2, 2011
Pumpkin Cake and Caramel Swiss Buttercream

When I woke up this morning it was definitely fall outside – and inside!  Waking up to a house that’s 50 degrees F is definitely not the best way to welcome in a Sunday but it’s definitely putting me in the mood for the holidays.  The best part about the holidays?  The food of course!  Yes it’s great to see friends and family, and you can’t deny getting a gift or two isn’t something you look forward to but the food really makes the holidays memorable.  Here are a couple recipes I found in the Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum and altered slightly.  (P.S. Expect to see a lot of episodes with Cake Bible recipes.  I’ve been getting a lot of inspiration for episodes from it lately).

The pumpkin cake itself is a pretty straight-forward recipe but is designed for making in a bundt cake pan – in fact a fairly shallow 6-cup bundt cake pan.  The author notes that doubling the batch to bake in a larger pan doesn’t really work because the edges get too dark too quickly, and I did notice that as well when I baked it, but I think if you doubled the recipe in order to make two 9″ inch cakes you probably shouldn’t have a problem.  I didn’t really change the recipe much except add in some extra flour and take out the nuts.  In the original recipe she uses safflower oil and walnut oil.  I don’t really have the money or pantry space to buy several different kinds of oil so I just opted to substitute their amounts for vegetable oil.

The icing was a little trickier.  When I first stumbled upon the recipe I loved the idea of being able to incorporate caramel into a buttercream using a creme anglais.  In the book, she uses a Italian buttercream recipe.  If you recall from previous posts, Italian buttercream is made by preparing a French meringue on the mixer then drizzling in 250 degree F simple syrup.  The trick is to keep the mixer going while not hitting the whip or the bowl with the syrup.  The problem is I have such a huge mixer and the icing batch was so small – only 3 egg whites!  During my first run with the recipe the meringue was so hard to reach that none of the syrup ended up in the meringue.  My solution: Change the recipe to a Swiss meringue.

When I was in school, Italian meringue was the icing of choice for all of my instructors – and for good reason!  Italian meringue is great for commercial kitchens where they are making icings in 20+ quart mixing bowls.  On the other hand, a Swiss meringue is perfect for at home and small time bakeshops.  Unlike an Italian meringue, a Swiss meringue’s egg whites are heated in a double boiler with the sugar until it reaches at least 120 degrees F (I like to go as high as 130 degrees F) and then whipped up on the mixer.  Much easier because there are fewer steps, and you don’t have to worry about hitting a tiny bulls-eye.  But you can see that Swiss meringue would be very difficult to do in a bakeshop – imagine warming up several quarts of egg whites on a double boiler!  Tedious and unwieldy!

For those of you wondering how the caramel gets incorporated into the buttercream it’s actually pretty brilliant.  The sugar from the original creme anglais recipe is mixed with enough water to dissolve the sugar and a pinch of cream of tartar and caramelized.  Whole milk is then added to the caramel and then cooked over low heat to slowly dissolve any remaining caramel.  When making the anglais you might notice some milk proteins get cooked from the hot caramel but when you strain the finished anglais into your ice bath, the cooked proteins, as well as any coagulated egg, gets taken out.  Once the anglais is completed it is cooled and you have a caramel anglais.

It’s very important to note that the caramel is going to have a profound flavor effect on your buttercream.  A darker caramel will have an intense bitter caramel flavor to it – which most people aren’t accustomed too.  Personally, I don’t care for it either.  So when you make your caramel aim for a blonder lighter color so it will be much sweeter in flavor.  Keep in mind that if your caramel gets just a little bitter the powdered sugar added in the end may help mask the bitterness.  To get an idea of where you are, taste the milk before making the anglais.  If all you taste is “burnt” then at least you’re only throwing out milk and sugar as opposed to egg yolks or even a completed buttercream.

Now that the temperatures are cooling off, icing the cake should get a little easier.  Remember that icing takes the form of butter so if your kitchen is 78+ degrees F you’re going to dealing with a soupy mess.  In the mixer it will look like it’s not coming together and on your cake it will just slide off.  Just chill the buttercream in the fridge for a little while and whip it up again.

Use aluminum foil to help give your gum paste leaves some life. Make sure to dust it lightly with powdered sugar so they don't stick, and allow them to dry overnight for best results.

To finish the cake, I used a small offset spatula which gives me a lot of control at the cost of a more time consuming project.  Honestly though I’m not sure I’d be able to use a larger spatula on such a small cake with such tight corners.  To get the lines in the icing, just slowly bring your spatula all the way up and down the sides in a fluid continuous motion.  You’re not pushing the icing – just drawing an imprint.  If you mess up, just re-ice the cake and start again.  To close up the middle of the bundt cake, I used a piece of gum paste.  You can also use a piece of fondant.  For best results use orange fondant, to match the color of your icing (I was being lazy).  For the stem, color your icing green and then using a straight tip (I used 800 but larger sizes will create a different look) pipe a coil column straight up – do not let it lean or it’ll fall over.  If you make the column ahead of time refrigerate it so it gets nice and firm so you can display it.  I also used the green icing to pipe the vines and added two gum paste leaves using the pumpkin/ivy leaf clip art stencil as a guide.  If you’re going to make the leaves, make them the day before so they can dry overnight.  I also used a little powdered food coloring to bring out the veins of the leaves but feel free to use piping chocolate or food coloring thinned with vodka.

Here's the pumpkin leaf or ivy leaf clip art outline that I used as a guide for the gum paste leaves.

I forgot to mention this in the video, but it’s very important to refrigerate this cake because of the creme anglais in the icing.  It has a shelf-life at room temperature for probably about 2-3 hours before it spoils but can stay in the fridge for about a week.  If you make the buttercream ahead of time you could even freeze it for 6 months – though the flavor and consistency may weaken over time.  But even when you refrigerate it, make sure the cake or slices of the cake come to room temperature each time before eating.  Eating cold buttercream is like eating mouthfuls of hard butter.

Here’s the recipe for the pumpkin cake and the recipe for the caramel swiss buttercream.  Below are the videos!  Thank you for watching!!