Today's recipe for Baked Sunday Mornings is the Antique Caramel Cake. I've made the cake several times; it is incredibly delicious and one of my favorites. But since I've already blogged about the caramel cake (you can read the post here) I decided to write about another Baked recipe today: the Baked Tricolor Cookies from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking.
This cookie is the Baked version of the Italian rainbow cookie, using Baked's colors (brown, white, and orange) instead of the traditional green-white-red color scheme from the Italian flag. Each of the cake layers contains almond paste (the cookbook has a recipe to make your own, but I used a tube of Odense), sugar, almond extract, softened butter, eggs, orange zest, flour, and salt. You make a big batch of the batter; divide the batter into thirds; and add orange food coloring to one part, cocoa powder to another, and leave the last plain.
You bake the three cake layers in separate pans, and once they are cool, you glue them together with a mixture of heated apricot jam and amaretto. The final step is to pour on a glaze made from dark chocolate, corn syrup, and butter. You chill the cake to set the glaze before cutting it.
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Recipe: "Baked Tricolor Cookies" from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.
Previous Post: "The Cake So Nice I Made It Twice: Antique Caramel Cake," January 25, 2013.
This cookie is the Baked version of the Italian rainbow cookie, using Baked's colors (brown, white, and orange) instead of the traditional green-white-red color scheme from the Italian flag. Each of the cake layers contains almond paste (the cookbook has a recipe to make your own, but I used a tube of Odense), sugar, almond extract, softened butter, eggs, orange zest, flour, and salt. You make a big batch of the batter; divide the batter into thirds; and add orange food coloring to one part, cocoa powder to another, and leave the last plain.
You bake the three cake layers in separate pans, and once they are cool, you glue them together with a mixture of heated apricot jam and amaretto. The final step is to pour on a glaze made from dark chocolate, corn syrup, and butter. You chill the cake to set the glaze before cutting it.
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The autumnal color scheme was perfect for this time of year, and the cookies were visually striking. But I have to say that these cookies (it seems odd to call them "cookies" when they are comprised of cake) were not my favorite. The almond cake was moist and flavorful, but I thought that the apricot-amaretto filling was too boozy. Of course, that would be easy enough to fix. I also thought the orange flavor from the zest was a little distracting -- I would probably leave it out if I make these again.
I might not have loved the cookies, but others definitely did; several tasters absolutely raved about them. I would definitely make these again, and it would be fun to try other color combinations and different cookie shapes (you can use cookie cutters to cut any shape you like). I look forward to exploring the endless possibilities!
Previous Post: "The Cake So Nice I Made It Twice: Antique Caramel Cake," January 25, 2013.
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