Ideas for very involved baking projects?

October 30, 2024 9:16 AM

Looking for suggestions for bigger baking projects such as croquembouches, princess tortas (spelling?), or Paris-Brest.

Sometimes I want to do a really big, impressive, hours-long baking project that involves multiple components and lots of time but is worth the effort. Croquembouches and Parish-Brest both satisfy this need (my one attempt at a princess torta had...mixed results); what are some other good options (ideally not involving yeast or long periods of waiting) that might meet this need? I especially appreciate specific recipes but just names of dishes works too. I am NOT looking for general baking websites, I love Sally's Baking Addiction and Smitten Kitchen and the King Arthur website and Serious Eats and Cooks Illustrated, I just want to know about the fanciest, most complicated, most time consuming recipes they have. Best case scenario it looks super impressive but just tasting good is sufficient. Final note: I have no interest in making my own puff pastry but am happy to use frozen. Thank you for any suggestions you have!

posted by an octopus IRL to Food & Drink (30 answers total)

Ooh when I was a small child my dad made a fantastically beautiful and delicious yule log. Every component was perfect and made from scratch. He shaped and hand painted the most realistic tiny marzipan holly berries and foliage among other decorations. Maybe my favorite part: meringue mushrooms. It was amazing.

Also a gingerbread house baked from scratch is a whole ordeal from design to final build and you can decorate the structural cookies with other fancy baked goods and cookies (shortbread shutters, lace cookie curtains etc).
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 9:27 AM on October 30 [8 favorites]

Have you done a PROPERLY HARD CORE bûche de Noël, with the liquor-soaked sponge cake, meringue mushrooms, carefully combed frosting "bark," dustings of powdered sugar & cocoa powder, and all the other handmade touches? My mom did it just once when I was a kid, after she returned from cooking school in France, and we were so amazed that I remember wondering if we were even supposed to eat it. (In later years she scaled it waaaay back.) [Edit: Jinx!]

Another project that you can go wild with is Paté en croute: fancy pastry work is the place to spend time, even if you just use some store-bought paté.

Have you done petit fours? A friend and her husband spent an entire weekend making them once, then sat around and ate them all, drinking wine.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:29 AM on October 30 [3 favorites]

This might not be complicated or time-consuming enough, but there is a Croatian layer cake called Mađarica / Madjarica, which involves many thin layers of cake sandwiched together with a chocolate buttercream, then glazed with chocolate icing. A colleague's wife made it for us once and it was memorably delicious. I've never made it myself, because it is definitely too involved for me, but the Madjarica recipe on Honest Cooking looks like a good match for the one I remember.

You do have to chill it in the fridge overnight after you've glazed it, but I'm hoping that's not the sort of long period of waiting that you're hoping to avoid (the only remaining step is cutting and eating it).
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 9:35 AM on October 30

On that theme, Dobos torte from Hungary is another production with lots of thin cake layers, in this case with a hard caramelized sugar top.
posted by gimonca at 9:44 AM on October 30 [1 favorite]

Croissants have long been on my "ambitious baking" to-do list, along with their decadent cousin kouign-amann. Also a proper tiramisu with homemade ladyfingers.
posted by specialagentwebb at 9:46 AM on October 30 [5 favorites]

We did a croissant class last winter, and I was SHOCKED at how straightforward they were. You have to chill the dough for hours halfway through, yes, but the actual folding didn't take very long. And then I had EIGHT CROISSANTS ALL TO MYSELF!
posted by wenestvedt at 9:48 AM on October 30 [5 favorites]

Esterhazy torte. Totally delicious, takes ages to make, absolutely worth it.
posted by Balthamos at 9:55 AM on October 30 [2 favorites]

Pasteis de nata - both the dough and the custard filling have multiple steps. Does need a Very Hot Oven and a steel muffin tin that can take that heat.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 9:57 AM on October 30

Quercyan Apple Cake. I first heard about this on an episode of Two Fat Ladies.
posted by JanetLand at 9:59 AM on October 30

Battenberg cake is a fun pain in the ass if you make all the components yourself.

Great British Bake-Off and its spin-offs is a great source of these. Any signature or technical where the bakers are 'ohhhh shit' when it's announced is a good choice. Like opera cake or something else with a zillion layers.

There's another baking show, Zumbo's Just Desserts, where many of the recipes used in the Zumbo tests are a) stupid complicated b) incredibly beautiful c) full of things that sound incredible and d) available in his book of stupid complicated dessert recipes.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:18 AM on October 30 [3 favorites]

Great Canadian Baking has a whole slew of recipes!
posted by Ftsqg at 10:39 AM on October 30

Perhaps not very involved, but enough to feel like you've earned the praise you'll get: Black Forest cake.
posted by demi-octopus at 10:43 AM on October 30 [3 favorites]

Opera cake is in the same genre as the Esterhazy torte, and is similarly delicious and labor-intensive. Recipe 1, recipe 2. It's worth getting some edible gold leaf sheets to gild the top for maximum fanciness.
posted by ourobouros at 10:51 AM on October 30 [1 favorite]

Sally's black forest cake took me 3 hours to make and it was worth it!
posted by Eyelash at 10:52 AM on October 30 [1 favorite]

A Charlotte Russe is so perfect for this, plus it's endlessly customizable so you can make whatever will be the most decadent and delicious to you while still hewing to a classic approach.
posted by neutralhydrogen at 10:56 AM on October 30

I got some good suggestions many years ago with a similar question here, though my question was broader than baking so not all of them will be helpful for you.
posted by Stacey at 10:57 AM on October 30

From Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol II, Le Succès.
posted by amarynth at 11:01 AM on October 30

A timpano? It's baked, so is baking, but is not a dessert, which seems to be your focus. Famously shown in the movie Big Night. I've never had one or made one, but I always want to when I think of it.
posted by AbelMelveny at 11:11 AM on October 30

Princesstårta isn't that hard, it's just two layers of sponge, jam and then a load of cream under a marsipan cover. Budapest bakelse is much more fun, involves a nut-sponge that has merengue baked onto it and rolled.
posted by Iteki at 12:00 PM on October 30 [1 favorite]

+1 that buche de noel season is coming up and it definitely fits the bill. The neat thing about it is that yes it's a big project but a lot of the components are just "decor" so if you run out of steam partway through, you can just skip making the meringue mushrooms and you've still made something quite impressive and fancy. I'm not much of a baker but I made one last year and it turned out delicious. Will definitely take another crack at it this year.
posted by potrzebie at 12:08 PM on October 30 [1 favorite]

And in general I feel like many of the recipes in Dessert Person scratch this "labor intensive showstopper" itch.
posted by potrzebie at 12:09 PM on October 30 [1 favorite]

What about a simnel cake? There are a lot of recipes out there for Easter fruitcakes which they describe as simnel cakes, but they are not at all the same thing. The simnel cake is a layer cake made with marmalade and almonds, and was traditionally made by or for servants who would bring the cake home to their mother, on Mothering Sunday. The difficulty is likely to be finding a recipe for the real thing.
posted by Jane the Brown at 12:11 PM on October 30 [1 favorite]

Maybe go look at David Lebovitz' site for inspiration?

I'm looking at random YouTube videos, and the algorithm gave me this -- there is an afternoon tea in it that is absolutely amazing.
posted by mumimor at 1:54 PM on October 30

Any Adriano 'Pâtissier of Pain' Zumbo challenge from Australian Masterchef.
posted by Ardnamurchan at 5:52 PM on October 30

My mother’s bakery used to make a raspberry Charlotte Royale. I found it magical as a child, all these little tight spirals forming a perfect glossy dome, filled with custard and mousse, wow. I think the technical challenge with that one is in achieving elegance (the rolls must be small and tight, the jam not too oozy, etc.). Could be much fun to do - using an old school recipe would be best.
posted by marlys at 8:10 PM on October 30

I made this Bûche de Noël two or three Christmases ago. Huge hit. Lots of work. Sooooooo pretty.
posted by hilaryjade at 8:27 PM on October 30 [1 favorite]

Strudel fully made from scratch takes a while. Also, this is a hyper local specialty, but atomic cake from the Southside of Chicago can be a real project as you're functionally making 3 different cales
posted by Carillon at 8:32 PM on October 30

We've got a long weekend coming up, and my plan is to try the spanakopita from a recent Bake Off technical. They got like 2.5 hours to do it, I figure I'll give myself most of the afternoon.
posted by Karmeliet at 4:19 AM on October 31

This is not a finished recipe but you can make it, portion it, and freeze the portions. You'll be moments from any number of impressive savory or sweet uses.

The recipe: puff pastry/pâte feuilletée.
posted by tmdonahue at 5:52 AM on October 31

Anything with a layered dacqoise could hit the mark. This sort of thing or a castel cake, if you can find an English recipe or read the French ones. (Like this one)
posted by graphweaver at 7:36 PM on October 31