16 replies to this topic

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I've been asked to create a white chocolate wedding cake for a friend, whose wedding is in September (the 22nd, to be precise). All well and good, but I haven't got a go-to recipe for such a creature, and I tend to avoid white chocolate (I find myself thinking it's unnatural, like zombies....) I have access to white chocolate couberture made from Arriba cacao beans, and it's all cocoa butter with no vegetable additions (so, as far as white chocolate goes, it's good stuff).

Does anybody out there have a really stupendous recipe they'd be willing to share? Or tips on how to incorporate melted white chocolate into a cake batter?

Thanks in advance....

[pastrygirl]

I've made white chocolate genoise a few times by using a mix of melted white chocolate and oil instead of the melted butter. Not sure how much the white chocolate really added to the cake, though. It was subtle.

[cookingofjoy]

I haven't made it in a couple years now, but I remember really liking Rose Levy Beranbaum's White Chocolate Whisper cake from the Cake Bible. The link has the recipe and pictures of it as cupcakes. I'd used El Rey Icoa, and I remember it being kind of subtle, too, but if I remember right it the texture would be decent for a wedding cake, firmish with a fine crumb. But again, it's been a couple years!

[RWood]

I haven't made it in a couple years now, but I remember really liking Rose Levy Beranbaum's White Chocolate Whisper cake from the Cake Bible. The link has the recipe and pictures of it as cupcakes. I'd used El Rey Icoa, and I remember it being kind of subtle, too, but if I remember right it the texture would be decent for a wedding cake, firmish with a fine crumb. But again, it's been a couple years!

I second the Whisper Cake. Not that I love to eat it myself, but I have made many a wedding cake with it, and it works very well. It's texture is firm enough for building tiers.

[janeer]

I haven't made it in a couple years now, but I remember really liking Rose Levy Beranbaum's White Chocolate Whisper cake from the Cake Bible. The link has the recipe and pictures of it as cupcakes. I'd used El Rey Icoa, and I remember it being kind of subtle, too, but if I remember right it the texture would be decent for a wedding cake, firmish with a fine crumb. But again, it's been a couple years!

I second the Whisper Cake. Not that I love to eat it myself, but I have made many a wedding cake with it, and it works very well. It's texture is firm enough for building tiers.

Ditto on the RLB recipe. It's fine--even for those of us generally pass on white chocolate.

[Ashen]

My wife makes this triple berry white chocolate cake every summer when the strawberries, blueberries and raspberries are in season. She uses Callibeaut white couverture which can get a bit expensive since the recipe calls for a pound and a half of it and that doesn't include the shavings of white chocolate she coats it with after it is iced, about another half pound at least.

Picture of one she made a couple summers ago.

[JeanneCake]

The white chocolate whisper cake from RLB is my go to recipe for when a client wants a slightly firmer cake than our usual vanilla cake. I agree with the others, is the best!

[Kouign Aman]

Ashen, that is one pretty cake!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

OK, Quick question, guys!

What is the percentage of cocoa butter in the white chocolate you all use? I ask because I attempted both of these cakes today, and they came out very very far away from the photos and examples shown - far from being fluffy and white and lofty, both came out leaden, yellowish, and fattily puddingesque (although fantastic flavour!). Should I be cutting back the amount of white choc / butter in the recipes?

The white chocolate I have access to lists exactly three ingredients: arriba cocoa butter, cream, and vanilla. There are specific handling instructions on the package telling me that I can under no circumstances let this stuff go above 25 C unless I'm using it, and admonishing me to keep it away from all types of light. Accordingly, I store it in an opaque airtight box in a cool corner of the bakery storage room. It's hands-down the best white chocolate I've ever eaten, but I'm betting it behaves differently from what's available up in NorAm.....

[RWood]

OK, Quick question, guys!

What is the percentage of cocoa butter in the white chocolate you all use? I ask because I attempted both of these cakes today, and they came out very very far away from the photos and examples shown - far from being fluffy and white and lofty, both came out leaden, yellowish, and fattily puddingesque (although fantastic flavour!). Should I be cutting back the amount of white choc / butter in the recipes?

The white chocolate I have access to lists exactly three ingredients: arriba cocoa butter, cream, and vanilla. There are specific handling instructions on the package telling me that I can under no circumstances let this stuff go above 25 C unless I'm using it, and admonishing me to keep it away from all types of light. Accordingly, I store it in an opaque airtight box in a cool corner of the bakery storage room. It's hands-down the best white chocolate I've ever eaten, but I'm betting it behaves differently from what's available up in NorAm.....

I used to make the whisper cake a lot in a bakery I worked in, and I believe we used Callebaut. It always worked well.

[JeanneCake]

Here is a link to the Barry-Callebaut site, and it lists the percentages for the white chocolate. I can't remember which one we have at work, I'll have to look tomorrow.

http://www.callebaut...white-chocolate

[teonzo]

What is the percentage of cocoa butter in the white chocolate you all use? I ask because I attempted both of these cakes today, and they came out very very far away from the photos and examples shown - far from being fluffy and white and lofty, both came out leaden, yellowish, and fattily puddingesque (although fantastic flavour!). Should I be cutting back the amount of white choc / butter in the recipes?

The white chocolate I have access to lists exactly three ingredients: arriba cocoa butter, cream, and vanilla.

Usually the cocoa butter ranges from 25% to 30%, with exceptions below (low quality industrial stuff) and above (for example I'm using a new product by Valrhona which has 33% cocoa butter).
But it seems that the problem here is due to a higher amount of condensed milk. The taste of white chocolate is given mostly by condensed milk, cocoa butter gives a greasy feel in the mouth but it's almost tasteless. If you say it tastes the best white chocolate in your experience, plus this cake resulted more yellow than standard, then I can only suppose this is due to a higher amount of condensed milk..
The list of ingredients of your chocolate seems totally misleading: sugar is not named and it can't contain cream, the water content would ruin its shelf life.



Teo

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Fair enough - but given this information, how would you suggest that I balance for it? Please bear in mind that purchasing something like Callebeaut or Valrhona white (which is what I was used to in Canada) is well and truly out of my price range given where I live.

I called the chocolate factory, and they told me that what I'm using is 35% cocoa mass, and they also noted that I must have had one of the older bags, which weren't labeled correctly (which goes to show how much white chocolate I use - as I said above I tend to regard it as zombie chocolate, and the qualification "the best I've had" is damning with faint praise since I prefer the darkest chocolate I can get my hands on for personal consumption.)

[teonzo]

Fair enough - but given this information, how would you suggest that I balance for it? Please bear in mind that purchasing something like Callebeaut or Valrhona white (which is what I was used to in Canada) is well and truly out of my price range given where I live.

I called the chocolate factory, and they told me that what I'm using is 35% cocoa mass, and they also noted that I must have had one of the older bags, which weren't labeled correctly

To re-balance the recipe in the correct way we should know the exact percentages of the white chocolate used in the original recipe, plus the percentage of condensed milk of the one you are using.
I suppose the original recipe asked for a commercial type, so the % of cocoa butter would be around 25%. I would suggest to try to use 70% (25/35) of the original amount of white chocolate, and then see what you get. For sure the result will be less sweet since the total amount of sugar will be lower, but this should affect more the taste and less the structure of the cake. The remaining problem is to balance the amount of condensed milk, but since you say it tastes better than the other white chocolates you used, then I assume it has also a higher % of condensed milk, so using a 70% of the original amount of requested chocolate would fix this. If you try to use 70% of the white chocolate then you should be near to your goal (maybe you can try to add even some sugar, if the requested amount was 100 grams of white chocolate then try using 70 grams of chocolate and adding 15 grams of sugar).

(which goes to show how much white chocolate I use - as I said above I tend to regard it as zombie chocolate, and the qualification "the best I've had" is damning with faint praise since I prefer the darkest chocolate I can get my hands on for personal consumption.)

Well, I can only agree, and to be honest I still have to find a chocolate lover that prefers white to dark.



Teo

[Panaderia Canadiense]

OK, since I was using 8 oz of white in the recipe, I'll scale it back to 5.6 oz and see what happens. Thank you!

The factory is very reticent to tell me how much milk solids I'm dealing with, which I actually understand given how competitive the chocolate industry is down here particularly on "specialty" products like white. They're compelled by law to label the percentage of milk solids in their milk chocolate (and they produce a truly excellent 56% cocoa 25% milk), but apparently no such regulation exists for white, which only needs to have the cocoa mass labeled. Meh. I'll keep trying!

In the meantime, the cakewreck is very nice with spiced peach compote....

[LovesGenoise]

In addition to the cocoa butter content, consider the cream listed in the ingredients. Most white chcoolate is made with milk solids, not cream, so yours may have extra butterfat that needs to be compensated for. In white chocolate, the only cocoa mass is cocoa butter, because if it had any chocolate liquor in it it would be darker. So if that's labeled it will give you a jumping off point.

Consider adding white chocolate to italian meringue buttercream- I also prefer dark chocolate for eating, and don't have much love for the overly sweet white stuff, but adding it to italian meringue buttercream is completely dreamy, much better than vanilla.

If money is no object, consider making the white chocolate custard buttercream in the wedding cake section of Rose's Heavenly Cakes- best buttercream I've ever had anywhere. Not too sweet, not too buttery, and amazingly, not too white chocolate-y, either.

All that white chocolate would pair nicely with lemon or raspberry, think your bride will let you sneak some in?

[flourgirl]

Ashen, that is one pretty cake!

I agree, it is a beauty Ashen