Earlier this month Christina Tosi opened her third Washington, D.C. Milk Bar location. A few days before, the Washington Post ran an article about Tosi's cake truffles, including a recipe (and even an instructional video) to make her strawberry-lemon cake truffles. I decided to try the recipe immediately. Although I have to say that I groaned when I read through the recipe itself, because all of the ingredient quantities are listed in volume measurements only. Tosi's cookbooks provide metric weights, which are always more accurate and far less annoying. I find it hard to believe that she provided the Post with a recipe that didn't include weights as well, so I'm assuming for some reason the paper decided not to include them. Sigh.
At least I didn't need to go to the store because it so happens that all of the ingredients required are items I usually have on hand -- including lemons, freeze-dried strawberries, buttermilk, white chocolate, and dried milk powder. From the title of the recipe I had assumed that the cake would be lemon flavored, but it's not -- the recipe uses a vanilla cake and the lemon comes from the lemon juice that is used to bind the cake balls together.
To make the cake, you beat room temperature butter with sugar and light brown sugar; add eggs; add the liquid ingredients (buttermilk, oil, and vanilla) and beat until the mixture has doubled in volume; and incorporate cake flour, baking powder, and salt. I spread the batter into a parchment-lined 9-inch by 13-inch pan to bake. The strawberry sand is a mixture of milk powder, flour, cornstarch, granulated sugar, ground freeze-dried strawberries, and melted butter. The mixture forms clumps and you toast them in an oven at low heat.
With my cake and strawberry sand ready and cooled, I was ready to assemble the truffles. I broke the cake up into small pieces in a bowl. I was very surprised how oily the cake was. I didn't trim off any of the cake crust, so my cake crumb mixture was mottled in color because there were bits of golden brown crust throughout. I tried a bite of cake and besides being oily, I didn't think it tasted all that great. I would not recommend using this cake recipe if you just want to eat cake. I added lemon juice to the cake crumbs to bind them and used a small scoop to portion out the cake and form it into balls (unfortunately, I forgot to write down which sized scoop I used -- but it was either a #50 or #60 and I got 42 truffles).
You're supposed to coat the truffles in a mixture of white chocolate and oil. I melted some Callebaut 25.9% white chocolate and added canola oil; the resulting mixture was too thick to work with. I tossed it and started over. I melted some Cacao Barry 34% Zéphyr white chocolate couverture and it was so fluid that I didn't even need to add any oil to get it to the proper consistency. I coated each truffle in white chocolate by putting a small amount of white chocolate in my hand (I wore gloves) and then rolling the truffle between my palms. After rolling the chocolate-coated truffles in strawberry sand, I put them on a parchment-lined sheet and chilled them briefly to set up.
When I was done, I didn't have much strawberry sand leftover (about 95 grams), but I did have a lot of extra white chocolate (almost seven ounces of chocolate left over from the 12 ounces I started out with), although I assume that's because my couverture was so fluid that my coating was particularly thin.
I tried a cake truffle at room temperature soon after I made them, and I was not impressed. It basically tasted like wet cake to me -- although my tasters weren't complaining. But I followed Tosi's advice to also try the "totally different sensory experience" of eating the truffles chilled and frozen. I liked the chilled truffles better, and the frozen ones best (even after being in the freezer for a full day, the truffles were not frozen solid -- they were still easy to bite into). The cold and frozen truffles were extremely refreshing and evoked the feeling of drinking a cold strawberry-lemonade on a hot day.
There is something so fun about these small and brightly-colored cake truffles. I'm definitely interested in trying out different flavor combinations as well. Because the truffles can be made ahead of time and served directly from the fridge or freezer, I think they would be great for a party and cake truffles just might show up on our annual holiday party menu.
Recipe: "Strawberry Lemon Cake Truffles" by Christina Tosi, from the June 1, 2018 Washington Post.
At least I didn't need to go to the store because it so happens that all of the ingredients required are items I usually have on hand -- including lemons, freeze-dried strawberries, buttermilk, white chocolate, and dried milk powder. From the title of the recipe I had assumed that the cake would be lemon flavored, but it's not -- the recipe uses a vanilla cake and the lemon comes from the lemon juice that is used to bind the cake balls together.
To make the cake, you beat room temperature butter with sugar and light brown sugar; add eggs; add the liquid ingredients (buttermilk, oil, and vanilla) and beat until the mixture has doubled in volume; and incorporate cake flour, baking powder, and salt. I spread the batter into a parchment-lined 9-inch by 13-inch pan to bake. The strawberry sand is a mixture of milk powder, flour, cornstarch, granulated sugar, ground freeze-dried strawberries, and melted butter. The mixture forms clumps and you toast them in an oven at low heat.
You're supposed to coat the truffles in a mixture of white chocolate and oil. I melted some Callebaut 25.9% white chocolate and added canola oil; the resulting mixture was too thick to work with. I tossed it and started over. I melted some Cacao Barry 34% Zéphyr white chocolate couverture and it was so fluid that I didn't even need to add any oil to get it to the proper consistency. I coated each truffle in white chocolate by putting a small amount of white chocolate in my hand (I wore gloves) and then rolling the truffle between my palms. After rolling the chocolate-coated truffles in strawberry sand, I put them on a parchment-lined sheet and chilled them briefly to set up.
When I was done, I didn't have much strawberry sand leftover (about 95 grams), but I did have a lot of extra white chocolate (almost seven ounces of chocolate left over from the 12 ounces I started out with), although I assume that's because my couverture was so fluid that my coating was particularly thin.
I tried a cake truffle at room temperature soon after I made them, and I was not impressed. It basically tasted like wet cake to me -- although my tasters weren't complaining. But I followed Tosi's advice to also try the "totally different sensory experience" of eating the truffles chilled and frozen. I liked the chilled truffles better, and the frozen ones best (even after being in the freezer for a full day, the truffles were not frozen solid -- they were still easy to bite into). The cold and frozen truffles were extremely refreshing and evoked the feeling of drinking a cold strawberry-lemonade on a hot day.
There is something so fun about these small and brightly-colored cake truffles. I'm definitely interested in trying out different flavor combinations as well. Because the truffles can be made ahead of time and served directly from the fridge or freezer, I think they would be great for a party and cake truffles just might show up on our annual holiday party menu.
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