santa fe blue cornmeal cake with caramel cream

This Southwest-inspired dessert includes ingredients that don’t usually show up in cake recipes: blue cornmeal, ground chile, and cajeta, which is a thick, dark syrup made from caramelized goat’s milk. Cajeta is very popular in Mexico. The caramel has an addictive sweet flavor with no trace of goat. The hit of chile may surprise you, but as good cooks have known for a long time, there is lovely synergy between sweet and hot.

MAKES AN 8-INCH TRIPLE-LAYER CAKE; SERVES 12 TO 16

• ¾ cup pecan halves
• 1 ¾ cups cake flour
• ⅔ cup blue cornmeal (see Baker’s Note, page 171)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground chile arbol, or ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (see Baker’s Note, page 171)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 8 eggs, separated
• 1 ½ cups buttermilk
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• ¾ cup cajeta, warmed until spreadable (see Baker’s Note, page 171)
• Caramel Cream (page 171)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper. Chop ½ cup of the pecans and set aside for decoration.
2. In a food processor, combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, cinnamon, ground chile, salt, the remaining ¼ cup pecans, and 1 ¼ cups of the sugar. Process just until the pecans are finely chopped. Dump this into a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center. Pour the egg yolks, buttermilk, and melted butter into the well and whisk to combine them all, mixing until smooth.
3. In a large clean mixer bowl, whip the egg whites with the remaining ¼ cup sugar until soft peaks form. Fold about a fourth of the whites into the batter to lighten it. Then gently fold in the remaining whites just until no streaks remain. Divide the batter among the 3 prepared pans.
4. Bake for 21 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick stuck into the center of the cake comes out clean and the cake is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool the cakes in their pans on wire racks for 10 minutes, then turn out onto the racks, peel off the paper liners, and let cool completely, at least 1 hour.
5. To assemble the cake, place a layer, flat side up, on a cake stand or serving plate. Dollop ¼ cup of the cajeta over the cake and spread evenly, leaving a ¼-inch margin around the edges. Top with about ¾ cup of the Caramel Cream and smooth out with a rubber spatula, spreading it evenly right to the edge of the cake. Repeat these steps with the second layer and another ¼ cup cajeta and ¾ cup Caramel Cream. Set the top layer in place and spread the remaining ¼ cup cajeta all the way to the edge. Then frost the top of the cake with the remaining Caramel Cream. Decorate with the reserved chopped pecans.

BAKER’S NOTES

• • If blue cornmeal is not available, yellow can be used with equally fine results.
• • Despite the amount of chile in this cake, the effect is subtle and extremely pleasing. To understand why only half as much cayenne is suggested as a substitute for the first-choice chile arbol, here are a few of the heat ratings in Scoville units for a number of popular chiles: ancho and poblano (1,250 to 2,000), arbol and guajillo (2,000 to 4,500), cayenne (20,000 to 40,000), and habanero (100,000 to 325,000).
• • Cajeta is usually imported from Mexico and can be found in shops in Latino neighborhoods and in the ethnic foods sections of many supermarkets.