eau de gateau: modeling cakes after perfumes
+ a reintroduction to bake chats, heeeeyyyyy
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hi hi hello!
With everything going on in LA, I want to start this one out with a few resources for those who may need them + a few places for people to donate should they have the means to. LA was my home for 5+ years, it’s where I found my voice as a pastry cook, my footing as a freelance creative and a community that is so full of authentic kindness and generosity. I’m so devastated by the loss this city has endured over the past week but, so completely floored and enamored by the way the communities have shown up and shown out for each other, that’s the LA spirit at it’s core.
Emily Wilson of The Angel complied this running list of resources
This is a master list of Gofund Mes that raise funds for displaced Black families
Free therapy sessions to those affected by the fires can be booked with therapists on this master list
Donating to Feed the Streets provides restaurants with the resources to make food to feed front line workers
Free N95 masks are available at all Los Angeles Public Library branches, please please mask up during these times of severely poor air quality
We recently hit 11k subscribers here on Substack (wow, thank you sooo much!!) and had one of the perfume cake videos go absolutely crazy on tik tok. So, I’m well aware there are a lot of new friends here, which is great!! Welcome to bake chats! Before we get into the perfume cake, I wanted to give a little reintroduction to all of you who have been here for a while and a quick run down of what to expect for those who are new ♡
First, things first, I’m Kassie but you might just know me as ibakemistakes. From 2020-2023/24ish I ran a micro-bakery out of my tiny LA studio where I mostly sold cakes- a lot of you know me from this period of time. Prior to that I was a pastry cook + recipe developer. Since leaving the everyday cake making world I’ve found my way back to full time recipe development, which manifests in a few ways. From consulting with bakeries on their menus/flavors, working with brands in collaborative but also ghost developing capacities, and of course finding the time to develop and share recipes here with you guys ♡
So, what is bake chats?
Well, it’s really just a dumping ground for all the chaos in my head. I share monthly favorites/things that are currently inspiring me. Because, the people we are out in the world dictates who we are and how we create in the kitchen. So, I find it important to touch on that from time to time.
You can also expect interviews with some of my friends from the industry, once again to humanize the people who’s work you admire on the internet. To remind you that there’s a whole ass complex person behind the dish/dessert.
There’s also the monthly (virtual) bake club. Where each month I choose a baking prompt, which are usually just the things I’m dreaming of making the most in the moment. Then I give you my *perfect* throughly tested base version of the recipe. Which you can choose to riff and bake off that, or use your own favorite recipe- the point here is just to have fun and be creative. Each post dives into the key ingredients and the role they play in a recipe. In the end I give a few ways you can switch things up flavor wise. Because, I’m big on make what you want, how you want to eat it.
There’s also the non bake club recipes. We’ve got plenty of those here. They highlight the flavors I’m craving. Got a bay leaf buttermilk panna cotta with a passion fruit granita coming soon thats pretty fucking great. I bake and share what I wanna eat how I wanna eat it. If you happen to wanna make it too then great. If not, that’s cool too. I’m not playing up and stroking the SEO gods, I’m just doing me.
And now we’ve got eau de gateau, which are the cakes I’ve been making that “taste” like perfume and shoutout to the genius in my comments who came up with the name, I wish I could find it to give it proper credit but ur a genius!! Which unlike the other recipes I share are not heavily developed, because they weren’t designed to be made again and again. They’re just for fun, this has become my outlet for creative expression. They’re also all riffed off off of my base recipes, with appropriate flavor swaps. With a more savory cooking approach- taste as you go and adjust from there. The whole “point” of sharing the series is to remind you that you can be as creative as you’ll let yourself be. It’s honestly, more of a creative exercise for the both of us. (See this one on thinking about flavor, it’s the same concept just, with perfume).
One last thing before we get into the eau de gateau recipe:
There are two “tiers” to the subscription here. Free and paid (monthly or yearly).
With a free sub you get a decent amount of content sent to your inbox. A handful of freebie recipes, pieces on how to think creatively about flavor ad how to start adapting recipes to suit you, etc etc .
With a paid sub you get access to all the free recipes as well as some exclusive ones. Articles on how to develop your own recipes from scratch, etc. You’ll also gain access to the group chat/DM features- where you can ask all your burning baking questions, ask for help fleshing out ideas for your next bake. Once summer rolls around I do have a few IRL tricks up my sleeves for you guys, but I guess you’ll just have to wait and see (;
And for every 50 paid subscriptions bake chats receives, I’ll comp 10 paid subscriptions for folks who need the monthly/yearly fee waived. If you’re interested in being comped, please sign up here. No questions asked!! comps are given first come, first served basis.
Twisted Lily was kind enough to send me a bottle of Xerjoff’s Lira which this cake was modeled after. They were also kind enough to provide me with a discount code for you as well! Use “IBAKEMISTAKES10” at checkout to save 10% on your first order ♡
This perfume upon first whiff reminds me of a lemon pound cake, which is what I love about fragrance- when a complex blend of fragrance notes reads as something so simple and straight forward. It’s the same sentiment I love about layer flavor in cakes, you can have all these ingredients and flavors going on and yet, they jive together and make something completely it’s own.
CASAMORATI’S LIRA AS CAKE:
Top notes: Bergamot, Blood Orange, Lavender Flowers
Middle notes: Rose, Jasmine, Cinnamon, Liquorice Blossom
Base notes: Vanilla, Musks, Caramel
This cake lived as many iterations in my mind before I landed on a rose water and bergamot chiffon with a jasmine + lavender milk tea soak filled with blood orange marmalade, an anise + fennel caramel bavarian with the faintest whisper or cinnamon, finished off with vanilla swiss buttercream.
Other mental iterations of this cake included:
Rose water chiffon, blood orange + bergamot curd, fennel + anise caramel, jasmine german buttercream
Bergamot chiffon, rose + jasmine custard, blood orange marm, liquorice-y caramel buttercream- lavender buds for deco
I try to get all the “edible” notes in on a cake though, but if I can’t make one fit well then, I’m not adding it to the cake because this is supposed to be fun… it’s literally not that deep ok!!
IF I were to make this cake again I would probably (most definitely) skip making the blood orange marm from scratch and would simply buy a jar from Bonne Maman. First, finding blood oranges at this point in citrus season was damn near impossible. Also, my method of marmalade making I think might be unnecessarily convoluted and most definitely a labor of love. So this is me, telling you to just buy the marm. Save yourself 7 hours idk.
The instructions condense the cake making process down into a 2/3 day process. But, should your life schedule need you to break it up a little more follow this flow:
Day one: Bake the cake layers. Wrap well and freeze until needed.
Day two: Make the pastry cream, buttercream and milk tea soak.
Day three: Give the pastry cream the bavarian treatment. Assemble the cake + crumb coat the cake
Day three or four: Final coat + decorate the cake. Serve.
Day One:
Rose Water Bergamot Chiffon:
Makes 2-8” rounds
Tools:
Rubber Spatula
Whisk
Mixing bowls
Preheat your oven to a true 335F. Prep the batter while that heats up.
6 large eggs, separated
100 grams granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Add the egg whites to the bowl of a stand mixer, saving the yolks for later. To the whites add the granulated sugar and cream of tartar. You can also use a hand mixer for this step!
Whip with the whisk attachment until stiff peaks form.
While the meringue whips, prepare the rest of the batter.
175 grams AP flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon diamond crystal kosher salt
Add the AP flour, baking powder and kosher salt to a small bowl, whisking to combine. Set aside.
85 grams brown sugar
75 grams bergamot oil
113 grams rose water
6 reserved egg yolks
To a large bowl add the brown sugar, bergamot oil, rose water and the yolks from earlier. Whisk to combine.
Once the egg whites are close to stiff peaks add the dry ingredients to the wets. Whisk just until combined.
When the whites are ready, use a rubber spatula to fold them into the prepared batter in 3 additions. Do not over mix!
Pour 420 grams of batter into each 8” non-stick, ungreased, unlined cake pans.
Bake until evenly golden brown. About 20-25 minutes. This depends on your oven- could take longer. Less if using convection.
When the cakes come out of the oven, drop them onto the counter from about 6 inches high.
Cool the cakes inverted- see why we want UNGREASED AND UNLINED cake pans?
Once cooled run and off set spatula around the edge of the pan to release the cake. Give it a couple of good hard whacks on the counter and it should pop right out.
Cut in half horizontally so you’re left with 4 layers of cake. Store cake layers well wrapped in the fridge or freezer until you’re ready to assemble.
Jasmine + Lavender Milk Tea Soak:
Tools:
Saucepan
Fine mesh sieve
Ingredients:
350 grams whole milk
2 tablespoons dried jasmine flowers
1 teaspoon dried lavender buds
Gently warm the milk, just enough to take the chill off of it. Around 100F.
Cut the heat and add the jasmine flowers and lavender buds to the milk.
Throw this in the fridge to steep overnight.
Strain out the flowers before use.
Fennel + Anise Caramel Bavarian:
makes 500 grams of pastry cream/750ish of bavarian, omit the the gelatin if you don’t plan on making this into a bav
Tools:
Saucepan
Mixing bowls
Whisk
Fine mesh sieve
Immersion blender (optional)
To make:
1 teaspoon powdered gelatin
1 tablespoon ice cold water
Bloom the gelatin in the ice cold water and set aside.
315 grams whole milk
1.5 teaspoons fennel seeds.
1 teaspoon anise seeds
Bring the milk to a simmer. Add the seeds to the warm milk. Cut the heat.
Allow the seeds to steep for 30-45 minutes.
Strain the seeds from the milk.
60 grams granulated sugar
infused milk
Heat up a small saucepan over medium heat.
Add the sugar to the pan. It will begin to melt. Keep it moving as it begins to caramelize.
Once your desired shaded of amber brown, turn down the heat and deglaze with the infused milk. Add a little bit of the milk at a time- be careful, the steam coming off will be HOT.
Once all the milk has been added, bring the caramel milk back to a simmer.
30 grams granulated sugar
15 grams cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon
1/3 teaspoon diamond crystal kosher salt
80 grams egg yolks- about 4 large egg yolks
60 grams unsalted butter, cold
the bloomed gelatin from earlier
While the milk comes to a simmer, combine the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and salt. Whisk to evenly combine.
Add the yolks. Whisk to fully aerate, the mixture should now be pale in color.
Temper the warm milk into the yolk mixture.
Return to the pot and cook while whisking constantly.
Cook until the custard thickens.
Take off the heat and add the butter and bloomed gelatin, whisking until fully incorporated. Or use an immersion blender for an ultra smooth texture.
Strain the mixture into storage container of your choosing.
Cover directly with plastic wrap. Chill overnight.
DAY TWO:
-Make a 1.5x batch of vanilla swiss buttercream, this can be made on day one too if you want, but you have a lot going on so, let spread things out.
-I use 30-50% the weight of the pastry cream depending on how light I want it. The pastry cream yields 500 grams- which is more than plenty to fill the cake with as much or as little as you’d like. For me, cake is a vehicle to get as much filling as the cake can hold into my mouth. Do what you want, fill as much as you want. But, don’t waste what’s left over, serve up any extra in coupes with crushed meringues and fresh raspberries. Sweet treats for days baby.
150-250 grams heavy cream
Just before you’re ready to assemble the cake, whip the cream to stiff peaks.
In a bowl beat the pastry cream to loosen it up before folding in the cream.
To assemble:
Bergamot Rose Water Chiffon
Lavender Jasmine Milk Soak
Marmalade (store bought is so fine remember, otherwise you will have found the time to add making this into your cake schedule)
Caramel Anise + Fennel Bavarian
Vanilla Swiss Buttercream
Off set spatula
Cake Board/Plate
Start with a layer of cake. Use a piping bag to create a dam around the outer edge of the cake layer.
Soak the cake with some of the milk soak.
Add a thin layer of marmalade, spread to cover the entire cake layer.
Top with some of the bavarian cream, spreading it out evenly over the cake.
Repeat with the rest of the cake layers and filling.
Crumb coat the cake.
Chill the cake in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before doing final decor. Though, a cake like this is best when it’s had a chance to sit in the fridge overnight and for all the components to really get to know each other.
Store in the fridge ‘till it’s time to serve, take the cake out about an hour to an hour and a half to let the buttercream come down to room temp.
Slice up and enjoy <333
I got a lot of request for the next perfume cake, lmk which you think we should start with!
And be sure to comment what perfume you’d like to see turned into cake next ♡
Chat again soon!
I am not a fragrance person. Most of the time they overwhelm my nose. But cakes inspired by fragrances? I'm intrigued. Such a cool concept.
Can see the possibilities.