For the piping techniques week, I made a simple vanilla cake with Swiss meringue buttercream. I just went with a super simple edge on the top and bottom because I’m way out of practice. It’s a bit rough in some spots, but I was pretty happy considering I haven’t done much piping in a while.

---

Classic Yellow Layer Cake

Recipe from BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts by Stella Parks
Makes one 8-by-4½-inch layer cake

Ingredients

• 3⅓ cups | 13½ ounces bleached cake flour, such as Swans Down
  
• 2 sticks | 8 ounces unsalted butter, pliable but cool—about 65°F
  
• 2 cups | 14 ounces sugar
  
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
  
• 1 tablespoon potato flour (not potato flakes or starch), such as Bob’s Red Mill
  
• 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt (half as much if iodized)
  
• ½ cup | 5 ounces egg yolks, preferably organic (from about 8 large eggs), brought to about 70°F
  
• 4½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  
• 1⅓ cups | 13 ounces milk (any percentage will do), brought to about 70°F
  
  

  Directions
  

  
  

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat to 350°F. Line two 8-by-3-inch anodized aluminum pans with parchment and grease with pan spray (the cakes will brown more and rise less in 2-inch pans). Sift the flour (if using a cup measure, spoon into the cup and level with a knife before sifting) and set aside.
   
2. Combine the butter, sugar, baking powder, potato flour, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low to moisten, then increase to medium and cream until fluffy and light, about 5 minutes, pausing to scrape the bowl and beater halfway through. With the mixer running, add the egg yolks one at a time, followed by the vanilla.
   
3. Reduce speed to low and sprinkle in one-third of the flour, followed by a third of the milk. Alternate between the two, allowing each addition to be roughly incorporated before adding the next. Once it is smooth, fold the batter with a flexible spatula to ensure it’s well mixed from the bottom up. Divide between the prepared cake pans, about 26 ounces each.
   
4. Bake until the cakes are golden and firm, about 40 minutes (or 210°F). A toothpick inserted into the center will emerge with a few crumbs still attached, and your fingertip will leave a slight indentation in the puffy crust. Cool until no trace of warmth remains, about 2 hours.
   
5. Loosen the cooled cakes from their pans with a knife, invert onto a wire rack, peel off the parchment, and reinvert. Trim the top crust from the cakes with a serrated knife (this helps the cake better absorb moisture from the frosting). Place one layer cut side up on a serving plate. Cover with a cup of frosting, spread it into an even layer with the back of a spoon, and top with the second layer, cut side down. Finish the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting, sculpting it into swoops and swirls with the back of the spoon.
   
6. Under a cake dome or an inverted pot, the frosted cake will keep for up to 24 hours at room temperature. After cutting, wrap leftover slices individually and store at room temperature for up to 2 days more.
   
   

   Swiss Meringue Buttercream
   

   
   Recipe from Serious Eats
   
   

   Ingredients
   

   
   

• 6 ounces egg whites (2/3 cup; 170g), from 5 to 6 large eggs
  
• 11 ounces plain or lightly toasted sugar (about 1 2/3 cups; 310g) (see note)
  
• 3/4 teaspoon (3g) Diamond Crystal kosher salt; use half as much if iodized
  
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
  
• Scraped seeds from 1 split vanilla bean (optional)
  
• 20 ounces unsalted butter (5 sticks; 565g), softened to about 65°F (18°C)
  
• 1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
  
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
  
  

  Directions
  

  
  

1. Fill a wide pot with at least 1 1/2 inches of water, with a thick ring of crumpled tinfoil placed on the bottom to act as a "booster seat" that will prevent the bowl from touching the bottom of the pot. Place over high heat until steaming-hot, then adjust temperature to maintain a gentle simmer. Combine egg whites, sugar, salt, cream of tartar, and vanilla seeds (if using) in the bowl of a stand mixer. Set over steaming water, stirring and scraping constantly with a flexible spatula, until egg whites hold steady at 185°F (85°C). This should take only 10 to 12 minutes, so if mixture seems to be moving slowly, simply turn up the heat. Once ready, transfer to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whip at high speed about 10 minutes, until meringue is glossy, stiff, and cool to the touch, around 90°F (32°C).
   
2. With mixer still running, add butter, 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time. Initially, the volume of the meringue will decrease dramatically; it may even seem soupy along the way, but as the cool butter is added, the mixture will begin to thicken and cool. In the end, buttercream should be thick, creamy, and soft but not runny, around 72°F (22°C). Mix in vanilla extract and almond extract (if using) on low speed until well combined.
   
3. Use buttercream right away, or transfer to a large zipper-lock bag, press out the air, and seal. Buttercream can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks and frozen for up to several months. (The main issue with longer storage in the freezer is odor absorption, not spoilage.) Rewarm to 72°F and re-whip before using.
   
4. Troubleshooting: If warmer than 74°F (23°C), the buttercream will be soft and loose; pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes and re-whip to help it thicken and cool. If colder than 68°F (20°C), the buttercream will be firm and dense, making it difficult to spread over cakes and slow to melt on the tongue, creating a greasy mouthfeel; to warm, briefly set over a pan of steaming water, just until you see the edges melting slightly, then re-whip to help it soften and warm. Full troubleshooting guide and video here.

Almond Pound Cake recipe is from the fantastic bundt cake book: Kiss My Bundt. Salted Caramel recipe I used from here.

This cake is probably one of the tastiest cakes I've ever made. The texture of the cake is not extremely dense like I expected from a normal pound cake, which I loved. The almond flavor is excellent compliment to the salted caramel. Only regret was I made this for a party and I was in a rush so I didn't wait long enough for the cake to cool, and thus it didn't come out clean. So the surface is not perfect. But OMG yummy :)

This recipe came from one of my many baking books, "The Great British Bake Off":

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-British-Bake-Off-Victoria/dp/1849902682/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344866855&sr=1-1

I love this book, it has a wide variety of recipes, including sweet & savoury (which is great).

These are traditional viennese whirls, a crumbly (almost shortbread) biscuit, piped into a whirl, with a cross between a custard and cream piped inside with jam. Next time I will probably use more jam than the recipe required (you can never have too much jam), plus a bit more food dye, which was supposed to give a pink swirl to the biscuit. I was a bit too sparing, so only the first few had a pink swirl.

Another pic

Recipe from the Ovenly Cookbook. I won't post it publicly because it's not published online, and it really is a great cookbook, but if you want the recipe just PM me.

This recipe is all about the chocolate, so I used a fancy organic fair-trade 60% cacao chocolate.

Now I don't actually like chocolate, especially dark chocolate, so I can't vouch for the taste personally, but others have told me it's pretty good!

I moved to a new apartment a couple of weeks ago and still haven't finished unpacking the kitchen. Nevertheless, the hazelnut (gluten-free) variation* of Glossy Fudge Brownies from Stella Parks' BraveTart was a wonderful way to christen the oven.

I've made the original version in the past. Both are the best brownies I've ever had.

My coworkers could not stop raving about how moist and decadent they are.

​

*"Replace the all-purpose flour with 7 ounces (1 3/4 cups) hazelnut flour or an equal weight of toasted, skinned hazelnuts pulsed with the cocoa in a food processor until powdery and fine, about 1 minute."

This is my first time ever posting on Reddit. Anyway, I am going to try the challenge this year since I usually bring baked goods to work every two weeks anyway. These Chocolate Friands are from the Tartine book, and the recipe for the Friands can also be found on this site. Not the best looking things I've made lately since I utterly failed at properly greasing the mini muffin pans today, but they are a really fudgy brownie like cupcake. I would definitely make them again.

I borrowed Plenty from the library for this one. There are some amazing recipes in there that I am looking forward to trying!

Recipe from Saveur.com. I halved it, and tweaked it a bit for high altitude using some tips from Pie in the Sky (ie, slightly less sugar, slightly more flour, dividing the 1 hour rise into 45 minutes, punch/knead, then another 15 minutes, and cutting the second rise from 30 minutes to 20 minutes).

My first foray into the yeasty world. I was very nervous, but very pleased with the results!

I have a set of them and I have found through some trial and error that the best way to get them clean is to let them soak a bit in soapy water then take a small scrub brush to them. The ones I got are also dishwasher safe, but I find that my dishwasher enjoys flinging them around, filling them with dirty water, and occasionally tossing them into the bottom of the dishwasher where they lean against the heating element ruining part of the silicone.

Recipe is from this book!