Princess Cake aka The Duchess Cake at Duchess Atelier in Edmonton

Princess Cake aka The Duchess Cake at Duchess Atelier breathed joy into Gramsy

The Princess Cake! What? In Edmonton, we all know this as “The Duchess”, the cake partner of “The Duke” from our very own famed Duchess Bake Shop. After creating The Duke, Giselle Courteau, co-owner and co-founder of Duchess (watch the video), did a good bit of significant research, as she is known to do, to find a cake noble enough and feminine enough to partner with her debonair and delicious Duke.

Giselle Courteau? Yes. French she is. Garner Beggs, her then husband, though a Scottish fraternal name, claimed a strong maternal Swedish influence and the renowned Swedish Princess Cake claimed its place beside The Duke. But, not before a complete redressing by Giselle. Every aspect of the original Princess Cake was examined, refined and re-developed with precision and attention to detail visually and sensually that Duchess Bake Shop is known for. And, renamed! All hail: The Duchess.

I am most definitely a Duchess Bake Shop groupee. Some gals hang out at rock concerts for a peek at the band. I hang out at Duchess and cannot miss sampling every new thing I see in their pastry window. Early on, I bought The Duke. A big one. It is Vanja’s favourite. It is the quintessentional and exceptional chocolate cake. Next, The Duchess. Oh, my.

Light. Moist. Creamy. Ethereal in nature with a tart raspberry pucker scented with citrus. All that enrobed in a thin layer of a fresh pale green marzipan providing structure while presenting a stance of feminine nobility. This cake. The Duchess is Valerie’s favourite cake.

And, look mom! I made it myself! At 62, whoop-di-do! I was so inspired and motivated after this 3 hour learning experience at The Duchess Atelier that I am now going to do the same thing Giselle did with The Princess Cake. I am going to make it my own. Not today, but it will happen. First, I am going to make this cake a few more times.

Fresh raspberries will be added somewhere in this cake. I have some ideas. And a raspberry fruit gelée layer. I am crazy over fruit gelées.

Princess Cake aka The Duchess Cake: Finally, My First Cooking Class At Duchess Bake Shop Atelier

Look at these world class facilities. Just being in this space is a pleasure. I first met Giselle when I interviewed her shortly after opening Duchess Bake Shop 20th October 2009. I had already been on “The Quest to Conquer the Elusive French Macaron” and writing about “Mastering the Art of the French Macaron” about three years before this. Failure after failure after failure, but I persevered. There were no blog posts to read in those days. No one here even knew what the French Macaron was. I learned through my travels and once you try one, there is no going back. Giselle put herself through similar paces times ten while living in Japan, clearly determined and succeeded.

Fast forward several years, and the Duchess Atelier opened. You bet I was the first person on the phone to book myself into a class! Two years later, I made it! Finally. To say getting into one of these classes is difficult, would be an understatement. It was and is not their intent to offer such exclusive classes. They just do such a darn good job that they cannot possibly accommodate the demand. Frustrating as that is, multiply that by two and flip the emotion. That is the degree of inspiration and satisfaction I was completely saturated in when leaving this class.

I try to book in a cooking class whereever we travel, so have been blessed with attending unforgetable world class experiences: The Bread Making Atelier at The Cordon Blue in Paris, Bread Making with Richard Bertinet in Bath, UK, French Maracon Making at LeNôtre in Paris, and so many more. Each of those experiences was unforgettable. This space would surpass all I have been in and this experience would compare well with all, and definitely surpass many.

Let’s start with the welcome! Coffee, tea, juice and goodies. Not just “goodies”, but Duchess Bake Shop goodies.

A folder with clear instructions and a pen.

Mis en place! Yes! We can all crack eggs and measure ingredients, but so many cooking classes don’t go to the expense of having the mis en place prepped in advance. Though the marzipan was prepped in advance, we still have the oppotunity to learn how to work colour into it when making the flower that crowns The Princess Cake (aka The Duchess in Edmonton).

And the teacher? Tricia. Outstanding. Standing ovation. As a retired public school teacher and one who has offered numerous cooking classes myself, she is the crème de la crème of all Cooking Class teachers. The Duchess Atelier is thriving with her at the helm.

Princess Cake aka The Duchess Cake: Filling the Cake

Never expect to serve your cake the day you make it. I never do, and neither does Tricia. Cakes must be frozen before sliced in half, and The Princess Cake visits the freezer many times throughout the making it process. The best part: it is very easy to make. The worst part: there are many steps to making it. It just means planning ahead and I would never make only one at a time. A few cakes in the freezer is always a good thing.

Like the mis en place, they had one cake baked for each of us, frozen and thawed just enough to enable halving it effectively.

The lovely Joanne was across from me and is an experienced cake baker and decorator. I would have loved to get to know her better. You could see her experience in the way she handled everything. A turn table would be a necessity if you plan to make many cakes. I got one long ago, but the one at Duchess is one of the best rated, cheaper and lighter than the very heavy Ateco one I have.

Using a long serated bread knife with your hand firmly on top of the cake, simply start sawing and turning and continue sawing as you turn round and round and soon you will have a beautifully sliced cake in two equal halves. Time for the simple syrup to be brushed onto each sliced half.

Everyone came with a friend. Roxanne was the lovely pal accompanying Joanne. There was one other single gal, Maryann, who had already attended The Duke class, made The Duchess from the cookbook at home the week prior and I could not have had a better partner.

Everything is well thought out. My cake: space 5 and V for Valerie. I got my exact cake every time it returned from the freezer.

Duchess Bake Shop makes everything possible homemade. The make their own raspberry jam for this cake. Fortunately, I do, too.  I will use this recipe, though.

Important to layer the jam with an inch to spare as when the top covers, it will spread. Lush Duchess made pastry cream generously layered over the jam. I asked if they used 52% cream when I tasted it. Then I read their recipe. Traditonal pastry cream does not included butter. Their recipe does. Duchess imports its butter from New Zealand as it has the highest fat content of any butter they could find to import on the planet. Ah-ha!

You’ll need to buy the book or experiement with the recipe to make a pastry cream this rich and delicious. Basically, in a 1 cup recipe, instead of the 1/4 cup of heavy cream traditionally used, their recipe uses butter. Not 1/4 cup, though. I am going to work on translating the recipe for the Thermomix machine, so watch for that in the future.

I love baking with others. At home, in my own kitchen, I look forward to baking only when a gal pal is coming over to do it together. I used to love doing it alone and I would be in the eye of the cyclone for days. Now, I am too tired to go like that. The passion is still there, but the insanity has been tamed, shall we say?

Gently, the top goes over the fillings and back into the freezer to set. Wrap after it has frozen, if keeping for a few days before the next step.

Princess Cake aka The Duchess Cake: Making the Chiffon Cake

Not only do we take home our own completed Princess Cake made with the cake prepared in advance, we now learn how to make that cake and will be taking it home to use for our next one. Is that not brilliant? And we get to use the Smeg mixer! What fun!

Mis en place; egg whites already in the mixing bowl.

As my partner, Maryann, whipped the whites until a soft peak formed, as above, then added the sugar with cream of tartar to continue to beat until stiff peaks form.

I sifted the dry ingredients just as Roxanne did with Joanne.

Perfect soft whites ready for the sugar and Cream of Tartar addition. An example of the little tips you’ll learn from Tricia: Cream of Tartar is a potassium acid salt that is formed during grape fermentation. Who knew and more curiously, who would have thought to use that as we now do?

Time to whisk the wet ingredients together, then incorporate the wet with the dry, whisking until well combined.

Ingredients ready to receive the whites. Whites still beating to a stiff peak (be careful not to over beat, though).

This is perfect. Well done, Maryann!

One third of the whites go into the big bowl with remaining combined ingredients. Fold together gently, but well to enable the batter to receive the remaining whites while maintaining more volume.

Light and lovely: ready to receive the remaining whites.

Gently fold, as little as possible, to retain air.

There will still be streaks, but be sure to wiggle out all lumpy bits before dividing into pans.

We had ingredients for a double batch and I would always make a double batch.

Trish’s mantra was: “Don’t fuss! It will be fine!” and she is right. You will see. She also offers lots of tricks to hide imperfection.

Smooth top gently to edges.

Each participant is “in the moment” with their batter. The room is humming with quiet satisfaction.

Into the ovens they go. I do not recall the name of Tricia’s helper. Shame on me. She was clearly an experienced baker and the best assistant. They have both been with the company for 5 years. There were 4 cakes in each oven.

The cakes will be a little lumpy on top. “Don’t fuss! It will be fine!” And, you can see, it was.