CHEF DUFF GOLDMAN
Charm City Cakes
410-235-9299
About CHEF DUFF GOLDMAN
Duff Goldman, graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and baker/owner of Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, creates special occasion cakes that blow away boundaries and limitations. Duff’s background includes working at the French Laundry and as executive pasty chef at Colorado’s Vail Cascade Hotel. While working as a personal chef he began creating “multi-tiered monster cakes” out of his house. Demand for his creations grew so much that he quickly grew out of his house as well as two small bakeries. In 2005 he purchased a former art gallery in Remington and his two-person staff has now grown to fifteen. In August of 2006, the Food Network debuted “Ace of Cakes”, a reality show that tracks Chef Duff and the Charm City Cakes staff’s weekly challenges and triumphs in creating over-the-top culinary confections. The show is currently shooting its seventh season and is one of the highest rated programs on the Food Network. Duff was named one of the Daily Record’s “50 Most Influential Marylanders” for 2008, and the Restaurant Association of Maryland named Duff 2007 Pastry Chef of the Year. Duff sums up his philosophy simply: If you can imagine it, we can bake it. There are no rules when it comes to cake!
A recipe from CHEF DUFF GOLDMAN…
FRENCH BUTTER CREAM
Yield: Roughly four pounds of butter cream (enough to ice a 3-tier cake)
10 egg whites
15 oz. granulated sugar
2-1/2 lbs. butter (room temperature)
Start whipping egg whites slowly in the mixer by themselves (no sugar or butter yet) until the whites are foamy. Make sure to have a completely clean and dry bowl when you start our process; any fat or liquid at all in the bowl will stunt the protein development of the albumen (egg white protein) and you will not have a proper meringue at the end -- results can be disastrous!
Increase the speed of the mixer and slowly start adding the sugar until all the sugar is incorporated.
Once all the sugar is in, increase the speed of the mixer even further and whip until the mixture is shiny and stiff. You now have a meringue. You know when your meringue is done when you pull out the whip, hold it horizontal, and you have what looks like a “sparrow’s beak” on the end of the whip.
Replace the whip, turn the mixer on medium and start adding the butter a bit at a time. Once all the butter is incorporated, turn the mixer on high and leave it for a while. Depending on the weather, the butter cream could take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes to form. You will know when it has formed when you hear the motor of the mixer start to slow down and whine a little bit. Also, when you first add the butter, your meringue will break down and look nasty. This is good and is what you want. When the butter cream is done, the mixture will be homogeneous and consistent...and tasty!
Remove the butter cream from the bowl and place in an airtight container. Butter cream can be kept at room temperature for a few days or in the fridge for a week or two. But, remember to always use warm butter cream when icing a cake. To warm up the butter cream, put it back in the mixer using the whip or the paddle, and apply direct heat with a propane torch (which you can find at any hardware store).
NOTES: Using a blowtorch directly on a good product is a very standard practice (see crème brulee).
Don’t worry about using raw egg whites in your butter cream; the sugar cooks the egg whites and makes them perfectly safe to eat. If you are still uneasy about this, use a pasteurized egg product.