A PIECE OF CAKE
U.S. pastry chef lands a royal assignment
Just one bite of her scrumptious cakes and you can see why Chez Panisse owner Alice Waters reportedly begged Claire Ptak not to leave.
Ptak, a California native, worked at the vaunted Berkeley, Calif., restaurant as a pastry chef until moving to London 13 years ago. It’s undoubtedly the U.K.’s — and now the Royal Family’s — gain.
Long before Ptak was chosen to create Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding cake for May 19, the epicurean wizard of Londonbased The Violet Bakery (bricks and mortar came only after selling her cookies and cupcakes fresh out of a stove at an East London market) was in hot demand.
Her knack of switching up something undoubtedly Californian with a whiff of Englishness (the organic lemon-and-elderflower creation, for example, that the royal couple have chosen) made seasonal-baking aficionados salivate countrywide and every food festival organizer virtually beg, borrow and steal to bring her to perform at their events.
Luckily for me, for three years, Ptak set up shop at the Port Eliot Festival in Cornwall, England. All her popular demos oozed in beautiful flavours that, as Waters says in her foreword to The Violet Bakery Cookbook (Ten Speed Press), showcased her “unerring sense of balance.”
In an industry of enormous ego, Ptak focuses on the love that’s whisked, stirred and folded into her food. Beyond her organic baking talent (no “soggy bottoms” in her cake tins), she’s one of the most knowledgeable, witty and gracious chefs.
With great patter against the backdrop thrum of a nearby music tent, Ptak treated the crowd to mastering a batch of apricot and almond muffins, as well as her gooey rye chocolate brownies, butterscotch blondies, cinnamon rolls and a deconstructed meringue roulade. (“It’s a shame to roll it up.”)
Last year, she brought in her café employees to set up a special breakfast club, embracing the wonderful, albeit challenging, nature of kitchen-in-a-field festival life.
And she was always in perfect style. Ptak, after all, is a presentation pro, having styled culinary creations for Yotam Ottolenghi, Kinfolk, Vogue and other notable delights such as the books of biodynamic farmer Fern Verrow and chef Blanche Vaughan.
As the aroma of her baking wafted to the festival tent’s back rows, Ptak happily gave away her trade secrets (use a bit of vinegar and corn flour to give a cake-y texture to a meringue; try soaking Blenheim apricots — one of her favourite fruits — in camomile tea, cinnamon and vanilla; and as a cocktail twist, why not put vanilla pods into vodka?)
Ptak waxed lyrical about the finest combinations (lemon verbena with strawberries; geranium with blackberries) and ingredients: from the joy of thick, unctuous cream in the U.K. compared to the “fluffy” North American version, to her love of Cornish Sea Salt.
“You can really play around in the kitchen,” enthused Ptak, who immigrated to the U.K. after a long-distance relationship with her British boyfriend (now husband). “I’m always a great advocate of trying different things.”
Fast forward a few months, and it seems like “royal baker” is just one such different thing she’ll be trying.
LEMON DRIZZLE LOAF
Makes: one 10-in.-by-4-in. (25-cm-by-10-cm) loaf cake, which cuts into 8 slices
For the sponge:
1 cup plus 3 tbsp (295 mL) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing the pan
1 1/3 cups (330 mL) sugar Zest of 3 or 4 lemons (save the juice for the lemon drizzle and icing)
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups plus 2 tbsp (460 mL) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp (7.5 mL) baking powder
1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
6 1/2 tbsp (97.5 mL) milk
For the lemon drizzle:
1 tbsp (15 mL) sugar
1 tbsp (15 mL) water
2 tbsp (30 mL) fresh lemon juice
For the icing:
1 3/4 cups (430 mL) confectioners’ sugar
2 tbsp (30 mL) lemon juice
1. Preheat the oven to 355 F (180 C; 325 F or 160 C convection).
2. Butter a 10-in.-by-4-in. (25-cm-by-10-cm) loaf pan and line the base and sides with parchment paper, extending the paper about 2 in. (5 cm) above the top of the pan.
3. First, make the sponge. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar well, though you don’t want as fluffy a mixture as you would for a layer cake. Zest the lemons into the butter mixture and mix thoroughly. Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure each one is thoroughly mixed in before adding the next.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix half of this into the creamed butter mixture, scraping down the sides, until barely combined.
5. While the mixer is still going, beat in all the milk. Then add the remaining flour and mix until just combined. Scrape the bowl and give it one last mix.
6. Scoop the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top with an icing spatula or rubber spatula.
7. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until the top of the cake is springy and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
8. To make the lemon drizzle, combine the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small pan and heat just until the sugar is melted. Do not let this boil, or the fresh flavour will be lost.
9. Use a skewer to poke holes evenly throughout the baked loaf. Pour the lemon drizzle over the loaf and let it soak in while you make the icing.
10. In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice until smooth.
11. To remove the loaf cake from the pan, run a small paring knife along the inside of the pan, then tilt the pan on its side and coax the loaf out, using the parchment paper as a handle. Peel off the paper and turn the loaf upright on your cooling rack or worktop.
12. Drizzle the icing over the loaf and let it drip down the sides. Use a spatula to lift the loaf onto a serving dish. This keeps well for up to 3 days in an airtight container.