Individual Pastries Using Alan Silverwood
Pans
by Alan
Tetreault
Click on any photo to
enlarge!
To make these tasty and beautiful individual cakes, I used the
Square Mini Pan set
from Alan Silverwood. You can adapt this method to
any of
the mini cake pans by Alan
Silverwood.
Begin by greasing the
insides
of each pan with Pan
Grease
to
prevent
sticking.
Fill
each
section
half
full with cake
batter. I
prefer to use
a
pound
cake
for
these
pastries and
a Betty
Crocker Pound
Cake mix will
fill one
set of 16
pans
perfectly. For
this
batch, I
used a scratch
almond
pound cake. Place the
individual
cake
pans in
the aluminum
tray
and then on
a cookie
sheet
pan. Bake
at 350
degrees
for 25-35
minutes or
until
a
toothpick comes out
clean.
Remove
from the oven
and cool 10 minutes.
Using a
long
flat
knife,
cut the
tops off even with
the top of the
pans. Remove the
cakes
from their
pans and
place on a
wire rack to
cool.
Click
on all
photos
to
enlarge!
When thoroughly cooled, I sliced each cake into
three layers
and placed them on a
sheet
pan. Using a
simple syrup
with added
Rum (recipe
below),
generously
moisten
each
bottom layer of
cake with a
pastry brush.
This
will not
make the
cakes soggy,
rather
it gives
them a
great
flavor
and adds
moisture
to the
pastries. Pipe a
perimeter of
Swiss
Mocha
Buttercream
(recipe
below)
around
the
outside
edge of each
bottom layer
using a
#8 tip.
Fill
in the
centers with
Henry & Henry
Apricot
Pastry Filling.
Place
the
second layer on the
pastries
and
brush
each middle layer
with a
generous
amount of
Simple
Syrup. Pipe
another full
layer
of
Swiss
Mocha
Buttercream
and top with
the
last layer of
cake.
Be
sure to brush
the top
layer
with
Simple Syrup
too.
Refrigerate for 2 hours
or
freeze. Before I
covered them
with
chocolate, I
lightly
coated
each
side with a very
thin layer of
Mocha
Buttercream so
the
chocolate
would stick to
them.
Cut your Chocolate Transfer Sheets
to fit the cakes you are
covering. For the
square
pastries, each
sheet
was 7-1/2 inches long and 2
inches wide.
Place
four transfer sheets,
cocoa
butter side
up, on
a
parchment
paper.
Melt
your
chocolate (you can use
chocolate
coating
like
Merckens or
real
chocolate) and pour on
one end
of
the
transfer
sheets. I
have
used the
thinnest Perfection
Strips
on each side of the
transfers to insure
an even
coating. Using one of
the
thicker Perfection
Strips,
gently
spread
the
chocolate
evenly
over all the strips
and
bring
the
excess chocolate down
to
one
end. Allow to
set up on
the counter
for a
few
minutes. When you
can
safely
lift
one of
the sheets, usually within
5
minutes,
move it to a
sheet
pan or
another piece of
parchment
paper
to
continue
cooling.
The chocolate strips are ready to place on
the cake just as
they are
solidifying. If you wait
too
long, they will break
when you wrap
them around the
cake.
Place
a
chilled
cake
on the chocolate
strip
and
wrap
it around the
cake.
Leave the plastic on at
this
point. Place the
wrapped
pastries in the
refrigerator
for
5-10 minutes then
remove
the
plastic.
Pipe a layer of Mocha Buttercream on the top and
place a 1-3/4 inch
square
transfer
on the top. Pipe a
shell border using tip #15 to seal
the
cake. The top
square transfers
were made with the
same method as the side
strips.
You
can
also
pipe
buttercream on the top to
finish them or
add
shaved chocolate, chocolate
curls or
pieces of broken chocolate
with
the
transfer design on
them.
Alan's
Recipes
Swiss Mocha
Buttercream
This
used
to be made with
fresh
egg
whites that were heated
with
the
sugar, but I have found
the
powdered egg
whites work
equally
as well without the danger
of raw
eggs. This is not
a
low-calorie icing but it's creamy texture and
wonderful
flavor are
excellent
in
pastries.
4
Tablespoons
Powdered Egg Whites
3/4
Cup
very
hot water
( or stong
coffee
for Mocha Buttercream)
2
teaspoons Almond
Extract or
Vanilla
2 cups
superfine
sugar
2 cups
butter-room
temperature
1-1/2
cups
shortening
2-2/3
cups sifted
confectionary
sugar
Dissolve powdered
egg
whites in very hot water for at
least
5
minutes. Add
sugar
&
flavoring and
mix
thoroughly. Place
on
mixer
using
a whip and whip until
stiff peaks
form.
Slowly add
the butter
and
shortening
until very light and
creamy. Add
confectioners sugar and
beat
on
medium
speed until
creamy
and
light.
For Chocolate Swiss
Buttercream,
simply add
2
ounces of
melted
unsweetened
chocolate to the
finished
icing. It
will keep
well
in
the
freezer in a
sealed
container.
Simple
Syrup
Simple
syrup is used on all kinds of
cakes
and pastries to
add moisture and
flavor. Simply brush on with a pastry brush.
1
cup
water
1 cup
sugar
Bring the two
ingredients
to a
boil. Cool and use
as
directed. Keep leftovers in
the
refrigerator.
I
like to add a few
ounces
of
Rum,
Amaretto, Kirshwasser,
almond
extract or whatever
will
compliment the pastry I am
making.
There really are many ways to
decorate
these small cakes.
Let you imagination run
wild. I love making a
variety
of lemon cakes,
fruitcake,
poundcake, chocolate
mouse
cakes, strawberry
cream
cakes,
etc.
Link back to GSA Homepage-Go
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instructions sheet using Chocolate Tranfer Sheets-Go