That looks quite yummy! I just had a look-see at Alton's recipe, and I noticed that his frosting recipe has mayonnaise in it. I confess I've never before seen a frosting recipe that calls for mayonnaise, although I've sometimes used mayonnaise as part of the actual cake batter ingredients. Curious minds want to know- how does it taste in frosting?
I finally got around to making my faux Devil Dogs using that recipe from Gretchen's Bakery for the cake part. I'm going to have to tweak the recipe a little bit by adding in a little espresso powder next time, though, since they turned out too bland.....not enough chocolate flavor for the likes of me. I always find that adding just a little espresso helps to bring out the chocolate flavor without making things taste like coffee.
For the filling, I actually made 2 kinds of frosting.....just to see which one tasted better. One was ermine frosting, which is also known to go by these other names: cooked flour frosting, flour buttercream, roux frosting, heritage frosting, Mary Kay frosting, miracle frosting, etc.. Seems like almost everyone as their own name for it. lol My favorite name for it is ermine, for no other reason than it just sounds nicer to my ear. lol It was supposedly the original frosting to top Red Velvet cake before cream cheese frosting came along (ermine and velvet). It sounded really weird to me at first to make a frosting from a cooked flour/milk roux base, but once I tasted it, I became totally sold on it. It's so light and creamy, you'd swear you were eating a frosting made from whipped cream. You'd never guess in a million years there was flour in it. I also like it because it's not overpoweringly sweet. It's just basically equal parts of butter, milk and sugar, a teaspoon to 1 tbsp. vanilla, and a variable amount of flour, according to how stiff you want the frosting to be. It takes well to being flavored, too.
I make it by mixing the flour and sugar together, whisking it into the milk so that it is lump-free, then I cook it over medium heat (constantly stirring/whisking) until it becomes a really super thick paste of mashed potato-like consistency. Then I transfer it to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap touching the surface and place it in the fridge to totally cool off. Once it's cool, I dump it in a mixing bowl, add the vanilla, and beat it with a hand-mixer so that it is smooth and somewhat fluffy and set it aside. In another mixing bowl I beat my room temp-ish but cool butter (about 65F) until light and fluffy, and then I dump the beaten roux into it and beat together for about 5 minutes until fluffy.
I also made a Swiss meringue buttercream frosting (the first time I've ever made SMBC, actually). It turned out fantastic, but I'm going to have to tweak the recipe I used because it came out a bit too sweet for my likes. I used the recipe and method from here:
http://www.cakepaperparty.com/2014/04/foolproof-swiss-meringue-buttercream/ By the way, the easier foolproof method she touts in the blog worked wonderfully for me without a hitch. And I was able to use up most of my stash of egg whites that I had stored in my freezer (I save all my whites whenever making recipes that call for yolks). They worked really nice in spite of being frozen for over a year, and in some cases over 2 years old. Oh- and the frosting itself can be frozen for many months for later use (and it takes to flavoring nicely, too).
Ermine vs. SMBC? I think it's a draw for me. They both have a wonderfully light, whipped cream-like texture that I really love in a frosting, especially when compared to an American buttercream, which I absolutely hate. American buttercream is basically made by beating butter and powdered sugar together- blech (my apologies to anyone that likes American buttercream). I figure if I happen to be low on flour, I'll make the SMBC, and if I'm low on egg whites, I'll make the ermine.
IrishLass