Cook's Country

-Today on "Cook's Country," Christie makes Julia a showstopping blueberry jam cake, and Adam reveals his top pick for toasters.

That's all right here on "Cook's Country."

-Jam cakes are some of the first layer cakes here in America.

They date back to the early 1800s.

-They were simple confections.

Pound cake was cut into thin layers, stacked with jam, then dusted with sugar.

-And they were very popular in early baking competitions.

And in one case, the competition was notorious.

-In 1891, at the Illinois State Fair, 600 competitors entered the Jelly Cake Competition.

-The winner -- Mrs. Willett.

She used angel food cake rather than pound cake for her layers, but she took home the big prize -- a brand-new piano.

-The other competitors, however, cried foul.

A true jelly cake must be made with pound cake, not angel food.

-Hmm.

They even asked for the opinions of the White House chef and the Delmonico family in New York.

The ruling -- angel food cake was acceptable.

-Since then, jam cakes have taken on many forms.

And today, Christie is gonna show us how to make a beautiful and modern jam cake with blueberries.

Now today, we're going to make a jam cake using a white layer cake, and Christie's gonna show us how.

-Julia, a white layer cake is a really elegant cake.

It's characterized by this pure white color, a really delicate texture, and a fine crumb.

That's why they use white layer cakes for a lot of wedding cakes.

Now, the method can be a little fussy.

Our method's easier, and that's what we're using today.

We'll start with our liquid ingredients.

So, I have 1 cup of whole milk.

This is at room temperature.

I'm also adding 6 large egg whites.

These are also at room temperature.

We're using egg whites.

No egg yolks in this cake, 'cause you know what happens if we add egg yolks.

-The yolks have a potent pigment that will turn the color of the cake yellow.

So if you leave them out, you get a white cake.

-And that's what we want.

So, I'm also adding 2 teaspoons of vanilla.

Now I'll just whisk this together until the whites are broken down and everything is smooth.

Now, I mentioned that the milk and the egg whites were at room temperature, and that's really important because we're going to be using some softened butter in the cake later on, and we don't want to affect the texture of the butter.

Cold milk would make the butter get a little firmer.

Okay.

So, we can move on to the dry ingredients.

So, we're using this stand mixer.

I already have 2 1/4 cups of cake flour.

I'm also adding 1 3/4 cups of sugar, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, and 1 teaspoon of salt.

And we'll just mix these together on low speed just so we can make sure that the leavener is combined with the other ingredients.

Now, the method that we're using is called reverse-creaming.

Our method starts by incorporating the butter into our dry ingredients.

So essentially, the flour is getting coated with butter, and it's partially waterproofing it.

So when we add the liquid ingredients to it, it's very difficult for gluten to form.

So that's going to give us a more tender cake, more delicate crumb, and it's going to resist doming.

So we have a flat cake, and that makes a good layer cake.

So, we'll turn this on low speed.

And I have 12 tablespoons of softened butter.

So, I'm just adding this butter one piece at a time until all the butter is incorporated.

We always like to use unsalted butter so that we can add salt as we need.

And the butter should be about the size of small peas.

This should take about a minute.

I think that looks pretty good.

Okay, we have our pea-sized pieces.

It's time to add our liquid ingredients, but I'm only adding half right now so that it will incorporate easily with the dry, and then we'll reserve the other half to add in a minute.

So, we'll mix this on medium-high speed for about a minute until it starts to look light and fluffy.

-Mmm.

Looks good and fluffy.

-It does, but it might not after we add the rest of it.

-It's true.

It can look curdled.

Curdled at this point is okay.

-Right.

And we'll just do this on medium-low for the last 30 seconds.

It does look kind of grainy on the beater, so we'll take this off, and I'm just gonna use my spatula to give it a final stir by hand.

Now it's time to transfer to our cake pans.

We have three 8-inch cake pans.

I've already greased the pans, then I lined them with parchment paper, greased them all again, then floured them.

So there will be no sticking going on with these cakes.

-You ensured that.

-Now, you could get out your scale for the most accurate measurement, but we're gonna eyeball them.

And I think between the two of us, we can see if they're even.

-I agree.

-So, I'm just spreading them out so we have a nice, even layer.

And that'll also make it easier for us to tell if they're even.

-I could do this for hours.

-Mm-hmm.

-It's almost like a Zen sand garden.

-It really is.

That looks pretty even.

-Think it looks great.

-Don't you think?

So, we have our cakes all ready to go.

The oven is nice and hot at 350 degrees.

The rack's in the middle position.

All three of these cakes are going to go on the same rack, and we're gonna bake them for 18 to 22 minutes.

We're looking for a nice golden top.

But halfway through baking, we'll go in and rotate and kind of switch -- -You're gonna do the shell game.

-Shell game.

Exactly.

Shell game of the cakes to make sure that they bake evenly.

-Alright.

-Today's artisan loaves and big old bagels, well, they need a new kind of toaster, so Adam's here, and he's gonna tell us which long slot toasters won our testing.

-Oh, man, Bridget.

Toasters have been a test kitchen consternation for years.

Most of them are no good.

Shortly after finding one that was decent, it got discontinued.

Shortly after finding a replacement for that one, the price went up to $250.

-Crazy.

-But we're very happy to be testing these long slot toasters 'cause this is a more contemporary design.

That artisan bread that you were talking about, that's the kind of thing that people are baking at home.

It's also now outselling straight-up sandwich bread in the supermarkets.

-Yeah, bread is no longer just square.

-Exactly.

So, these can handle big, thick slices of artisan bread, regular sliced bread, bagels, English muffins, whatever you want.

There are eight different toasters in our lineup.

They're all that long slot that you mentioned.

The price range was $36 to $249.95.

And to test them, testers toasted and toasted and toasted some more.

They toasted all three kinds of breads that we talked about -- the bagels, the artisan, and the sliced bread at light settings, medium settings, dark settings.

They tested all the features.

They tested a few different batches consecutively and then felt the outside to make sure that they didn't get too hot.

-Mm-hmm.

-In the top three contenders, testers made 365 consecutive pieces of toast just to try and simulate a year's worth of use.

The testing, in terms of the toast, at all three settings -- light, medium, and dark -- not so great across the board.

-Really?

Still.

-Pretty uneven results.

The light setting generally produced barely warm, very pale slices of bread.

The dark setting often produced burnt pieces of toast.

And the medium setting, you can get a nice medium piece of toast, but you had to fiddle with it constantly.

There were only two that were really sort of reliable in terms of the settings -- that was these two here -- where you could get the setting that you called for without a ton of fiddling.

-Okay.

-Now, you want a toaster to be super easy to use, right?

It's the morning, you're making toast, you don't want to have to read an owner's manual.

-Barely awake.

-Exactly.

-So, Bridget, in the midst of all of this toast talk, I feel the need for a bagel.

Could you help me out, please?

-Oh, you want me to do it for you?

-Yes, please.

Could you toast me a bagel in this beautiful pale green model here.

-It's gorgeous.

I love the color.

-They're really beautiful.

-Alright.

Lever down.

-Most people would do it exactly like you would.

I would have done it, too.

It turns out that this toaster is not the no-brainer that a toaster should be because on the bagel setting, only the outside elements heat up.

So if you want the face of your bagel to toast, you have to put it in with the cut sides facing out.

-Right.

-So, this is not what you're looking for from a toaster.

-No, no.

-You just want it to work the way it should work, not these weird things.

Now, let's talk about the dimensions of the slots.

These long slots usually measured in length between 10 and 10 1/2 inches.

-Mm-hmm.

-But in order to fit two slices of bread -- just standard sliced sandwich bread -- in side by side, those would only fit into the slots if they were more than 10 inches.

Otherwise, they were a little squished, a little bent.

You didn't really want that.

Now, in terms of the slot depth, the slot depth measurements ranged from 6 7/8 inches to 4 3/4 inches.

The 4 3/4 inches was a little too shallow, because when you put it down, you would get a piece of the bagel or a piece of the bread still sticking up above the slot, and that wouldn't toast.

So you would end up with this sort of rare stripe at the top of your toast, which you didn't really want.

It was also a surprise to testers that the depth of the slot didn't really correspond to how easy it was to get the toast out of the toaster when it was done.

Some of these things, when the carriage popped up, the toast was still setting down too low, and it was sort of hard to grab it.

-A little tempting to go in there.

-Some of them -- our favorite green guy here and this one -- had the opposite problem.

When the carriage popped up at the end of the toasting cycle, it was so violent that sometimes, the toast flew up and out of the toaster, either onto the counter or sometimes onto the floor.

-Like in a cartoon.

You see... -It was always good for a laugh, but it was actually not that great for the toast.

And were it not for that flying toast act, this would have been our winner.

This is the Dash Clear View Toaster.

It was actually pretty consistent in terms of its toasting performance.

It was $36.03, which is a good price for a toaster.

-That's a steal.

-It's got this window here so you can see what's going on without interrupting the toasting cycle.

You can monitor your toast.

It heats pretty evenly.

So this one is our best buy.

This is the overall winner.

This is the Breville The Bit More Toaster.

It was $79.99.

It was a pretty even toaster, didn't require much fiddling, and it had a lot of features that the testers really liked.

It's got a "Bit More" button, so if you want a little more time for slightly darker toast, you just press that.

It's got a 'Lift & Look' Lever so you can monitor what's going on without interrupting the cycle.

It's got this bar of lights that shows you where in the cycle you are.

All in all, for $79.99, pretty good toaster.

-I love that little button, so, just a little bit more color on there.

-Who couldn't use a little bit more color?

-Yeah, exactly, we all need a little zhushing, don't we?

-We do.

-Well, there you go.

You want breakfast in the morning, good toast?

Why not get a great toaster?

And our winner is the Breville The Bit More Toaster.

It's $79.99, or you can go get our best buy.

It's the Dash Clear View Toaster for $36.03.

-Oh-ho-ho.

-Oh, that is a good smell.

-Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

-They almost smell caramel-y.

-They really do.

And nice and golden.

See, this is the color we're going for, but let's test them because we won't know until we toothpick them.

It's a verb.

-It's a verb.

-I'm looking for no crumbs.

We want these to be nice and clean.

-Perfect.

-I see no crumbs.

Obviously, they're hot right now, so we'll let them sit on the racks in the pans for 10 minutes, and then we'll remove them from the pans and let them sit here on the racks for two hours so they're perfectly, completely cool.

So, let's get started.

This is a blueberry jam cake, so we're gonna make some jam.

Now, jam usually starts with some sugar.

I have 1/2 cup.

And we're going to use the food processor to get this started.

Now, that's not a lot of sugar.

-No, I was gonna say.

-No.

So we need pectin, as well.

But we're using pectin that's designed for low or no-sugar-added recipes.

-Mm-hmm.

-2 tablespoons.

And then I'm just adding a pinch of salt.

Now, we'll just let this process for about three seconds until everything gets mixed together.

I think that's good.

Now, we originally envisioned this recipe with fresh summer blueberries, and they work.

It's great.

But what we found out is that you can actually use thawed frozen blueberries and have just as good of a jam, and then you can make the cake any time of year.

-Oh, I like that idea.

-Mm-hmm.

So, these have thawed already.

This is 15 ounces or 3 cups.

We'll pulse these about six to eight times.

And we just want to break down the berries a little bit and allow some of the juices and the pectin to be released.

Six to eight pulses.

We're just looking for a coarse chop.

So, now I'm gonna transfer these to my sauce pan.

This is a medium sauce pan.

I'm gonna heat this over medium heat for about six to eight minutes.

We're looking for it to start bubbling and starting to thicken ever so slightly.

So, this has been bubbling merrily.

[ Both laugh ] So I'm going to turn off the heat.

You can see that it has thickened a little bit, but not -- -Ever so slightly.

-Right, not a ton, and that's okay.

We don't want to over-thicken it now.

This will continue to set and thicken as it sits.

I'll take this totally off the heat 'cause this burner's still hot.

And I'm adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.

And we always like to add that at the end so that the lemon flavor stays bright and fresh.

Now, if you help me, I need to measure 1 1/3 cups into that measuring cup.

-Alright.

I'll get down at eye level here.

There we go.

-There?

-Yep.

-Great.

This will be the filling between the layers of the cake.

So, I'm just going to cover it, and this is going to go in the refrigerator for about three hours.

Everything I have left in here is going to go through that fine-mesh strainer.

This is going to color our frosting.

-Oh, you're making an all-natural food coloring.

-Mm-hmm.

But we wanted a really nice, smooth, beautiful frosting, so we're just pressing this through the fine-mesh strainer so that we get all the juice in the bottom but none of the speckles.

-So, how much of the strained mixture do you really need for frosting the whole cake?

-We need about 4 tablespoons or 1/4 cup.

That's what should be coming through the strainer.

Now, this we will let sit, but we're not going to chill this one.

This, we want to be able to mix it into our frosting.

We're just gonna clean up this area, and then we'll come back and make our frosting.

-Alright.

-Now it's finally time to make the frosting.

-I love frosting.

-Me, too.

So, I have 1 1/2 cups of confectioners sugar already in the bowl.

I'm adding 8 tablespoons of unsalted butter, softened and cut into eight pieces.

Now, if you would be so kind as to give me medium-high speed, maybe ease your way up.

-I'll ease it up.

-We're gonna go for three minutes.

Make sure this is light and fluffy.

That's what we're talking about.

But it's sweet, and we have a sweet filling, and we have a sweet cake, so we're adding some cream cheese to our buttercream.

Will add a little bit of a tangy note to it, and it plays so nicely with the blueberries.

So, I have 8 ounces of cream cheese.

I've cut this up into eight pieces.

Now, you need to make sure that that cream cheese is softened.

I'm going to add this one piece at a time.

So, I already have our first piece in there.

We'll turn it back up to medium-high, and we'll let this go until all of the cream cheese is in there and we don't have any bits.

We don't want to see big blobs of cream cheese in there.

-Gotcha.

-Alright.

Can we turn that off, please?

-Mm-hmm.

-You don't want to over-beat this, but once we tint the frosting, that's when you sometimes see bits of cream cheese, so it's worth it to take a couple extra seconds to make it smooth.

So, we're going to add two teaspoons of vanilla.

And then we will go back to our strained jam mixture that's just been sitting out at room temperature.

I'm going to add 2 tablespoons of this to the frosting.

And now we'll just let this go for a few seconds until everything is mixed together, and you'll see a beautiful shade of purple start to emerge.

So, let's put this back on medium-high to get this all mixed in.

So, that looks pretty cohesive.

So, I'll scrape all around the outside, plus the divot of doom, as I like to call it -- that gap on the bottom.

-That's a great name.

-[ Laughs ] -That looks pretty gorgeous.

-I think this is pretty smooth.

So, I'm going to transfer 1/3 cup of the frosting to each of these two bowls.

And until you get this on the cake, you have lots of opportunities to stir any streaks that you see.

Okay, now, we're not done yet because this is our master.

So this is what we'll use for most of the cake -- the biggest amount of it there.

But I'm going to color these two.

I'm adding 1 tablespoon of the jam to one of the bowls.

Either bowl.

And then I'll add 1 teaspoon to the other bowl.

-You're making a purple color chart.

-[ Laughs ] Right.

-Like it's a paint store.

-Exactly.

That's kind of what it's gonna look like.

One thing to note, though -- it's not a bad idea to chill the darker colors while you're frosting the cake, doing the crumb coat, just to keep it nice and firm.

So, Julia, the cakes are completely cool.

They've been cooling for about two hours now.

We'll be moving the cake on and off the turntable.

So it really makes it easy to do that if we use a cardboard cake round.

This is slightly smaller than our cake so that we can frost all the way to the bottom of the cake.

So, this is about 7 inches.

So, I'll move my first cake over.

Now, before I put this on the turntable, we don't want it sliding all over the place.

-Need a little glue.

-A little glue.

There we go.

That'll just anchor it a little bit.

So, now, the first thing we'll do is we have to start adding our filling.

So, I'm going to transfer 2/3 cup of my jam to that first cake layer.

See how nicely it's firmed up?

-Yeah.

-Alright, so, we'll use my offset spatula to smooth this out from the center.

We want a nice, even coating.

And I'm not gonna put it all the way to the edge.

We'll leave just a small gap, because once we add two more layers of cakes to this, we don't want it to squeeze out the sides.

Alright, I think that looks pretty good.

So, now we'll put the second cake on.

And just take your time.

And remember -- not all the way to the edge, just to leave a little bit of space for movement.

Okay, now, for our third layer, I'm actually going to invert this cake so we have a perfectly level layer on the top.

It is time to frost.

-Surgical precision, my friend.

-[ Laughs ] We just want to put a nice, thin crumb coat on.

Now, the purpose of this is to actually capture all of the crumbs that are on the cake and encase them in that first layer of frosting.

I like to do the sides first.

It doesn't have to look pretty.

We just want to have a really nice, thin layer around the whole cake.

So, I'm totally covered now, but I have more on than I need.

So, we really just want a very thin layer, so I'm gonna go around and just scrape off some of the excess.

I'm gonna do the same thing with the top.

Once I've finished the whole cake, then we're gonna put this in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, just to set the frosting to make sure that it's really easy for us to finish frosting later.

So, our crumb coat is set, and it really makes it so much easier to do this next step.

We're starting from the bottom, and we'll work our way up.

So, 1/3 of the cake will be the darkest, the middle third for the middle color, and then the top third will be the lightest.

So, I'll start at the bottom, and I'm doing the same thing that I did when I did my crumb coat.

And there will be plenty of this colored frosting.

There's no need to be shy with it.

We will blend these all together, so if there's a little bit where it's not a perfect third, it's totally fine.

Okay, that looks pretty good for the first third.

-Gorgeous.

-Now we'll use the middle color.

-Wiping your spatula clean.

-I don't want to contaminate the other color.

I just want to get that middle third.

-Looks good.

-Yeah.

Now, this is one of those cakes where this part does not have to be perfect, because once we finish this, we're gonna employ a swooping action that's going to even everything out, and it's gonna look fantastic.

Now we're ready for the top third.

Now, this is the right color, but remember, it was just the crumb coat.

Now we'll do the top.

See, the top's a dream after doing the sides.

Okay.

So, for this last step, I like to use a large offset spatula.

What I'm going to do is start with the offset spatula against the cake at the bottom of the cake against the turntable.

And I'm going to start turning the cake, and I'm slowly gonna start bringing my hand up towards the top.

-Alright.

-Okay?

So, we'll have about six swirls or so going up the sides.

And there we go.

-That's cool.

-So, see?

It blends the colors together, it smoothes the side of the cake.

-Now, what are you gonna do for the top?

-I'm gonna do the same thing, but I'm going to start at the outside and work my way into the center.

-Okay.

-It's almost kaleidoscopic.

-That is so cool, Christie.

-Isn't that fun?

So, we're going to chill this for 30 minutes in the refrigerator, and then we're going to eat.

-Alright.

I'll be waiting.

Christie, that is one gorgeous cake.

-Now I'm going to cut into this cake.

-I feel like I should do a drum roll for you.

I like the size of your cake pieces.

-Well -- -I just want to say that right off the bat.

-...I want you to be able to see and appreciate this cake for what it is, so... -Me too.

-Mm-hmm.

-Alright.

Little bit of frosting, little bit of cake, little bit of jam.

-As it should be.

-Mmm.

You know, it looks gorgeous, but it tastes amazing.

-Mm-hmm.

-The blueberry is such a clean flavor, not too sweet.

The frosting is buttery, but that cream cheese adds that little bit of tang.

It just makes it more interesting than your average frosting.

And the cake is perfect.

It's light, not too dense.

-It's kind of like all the best parts of blueberry cheesecake... -Mm-hmm.

-...but it's such a nice, delicate crumb.

-Mmm!

-It's easy to slice.

It just looks very impressive.

-Mmm.

Christie, this cake is straight-up amazing.

Looks stunning, tastes like perfection.

-Thank you.

-To make this showstopper of a cake, start with cake flour, egg whites, and the reverse-creaming method to make three delicate layers of white cake.

Cook blueberries, sugar, and pectin together to make a quick jam.

Then make an easy frosting with softened butter, confectioners sugar, and cream cheese.

Assemble the cake using some of the jam between the layers, and tint the frosting with jam in order to achieve that gorgeous ombr effect.

From "Cook's Country," the ultimate recipe for blueberry jam cake.

So good.

-Let us help with dinner tonight.

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