Dairyland Cream Cheese Cake is an 8 layer homage to, what else? Cream cheese! A cream cheese vanilla cake is paired with vanilla and chocolate cream cheese frostings that have perfect balance of sweet-tang flavor and smooth texture. Covered with a layer of dual-colored frosting makes this Dairyland Cream Cheese Cake the ultimate tribute to a perfect baking ingredient.
Cream cheese. In New York cream cheese is the essential ingredient in cheesecake and the ultimate condiment for a boiled bagel. Similar to Europe’s Neufchatel and Mascarpone, cream cheese (originally) is served unaged, making for a young, sharp flavor.
Yet the cream cheese Americans know derives , not from Philadelphia, but from the New York Catskill region.
During the late 19th century dairy farmers, who wanted to sell their products down in New York City, could not get their product south. Despite the use of refrigerated cars, transporting meat from Chicago to the East Coast, such technology was inaccessible to these rural farmers.
Long standing dairy preservation, cheese making, made it possible to sell dairy down in the city. Cream cheese had many trial runs, but it was William A. Lawrence, with the help of a New York distributor, who first sold the soft spreadable cream cheese to the consumer market.
Initially cream cheese was sold as Star Cream Cheese. But in 1885, it was renamed Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
Philadelphia, had nothing to do with the origins of cream cheese. Naming the brand after the city of brotherly love implied high-brow connotations the posh city.
(I had to change plates, the cake was too tall!)
Living in the Catskills means you grew up in dairy country. The region may not be as active as it use to be, but the heritage of dairy farming is deeply planted in the region. Streets are named after the dairy farms. Large tankards drive down state roads. Here and there you’ll see sprinklings of cows.
Why Dairyland? In fact, Dairyland is a this mini-stretch of an area straddling on the edge of a Hudson Valley county’s winding road. Part of the borscht belt region, Dairyland is nothing more than land. No town, no attractions, maybe a few houses. Occupied? You couldn’t tell by driving through Dairyland.
I never understood Dairyland, but it is cute, for the handful of miles it spans. A dairy farm at one point, the Dairyland area sits dormant. I doubt it ever produced cream cheese like other Hudson and Catskill farmers, but like Star/Philadelphia it’s all about naming. Doesn’t Dairyland sound perfectly pastoral?
To the cake! I must describe the cake! The Dairyland Cream Cheese Cake is denser than the Popcorn Cream Cake or the Good Morning Cereal Cake. For stacking a cake to this degree, I needed a tighter, more compact, crumb.
The frostings have high ratios of cream cheese but still have butter and powdered sugar to provide some structure. This frosting is softer than most and is reminiscent of that liquid cheesecake filling.
The two toned technique is seemingly simple but also a one-shot kind of deal. An initial plain coating of frosting is applied. You follow by adding a second colored coating. Once the colored frosting is applied you run a decorating comb through the frostings. This removes a decent amount of the color to reveal the white color underneath. No repairs or redos are possible especially with this frosting. The more your mess with the comb through, the more the two colors will blend together.
This cake gets better with age. Similar to French macarons, the melding of the cake layers and frosting layers produces a harmonized fusion of flavor that is more moister and more tender.
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- For the Cream Cheese Cake:
- 4 ½ cups cake flour
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 4 ounces vegetable oil
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
- 6 large egg, room temperature
- 2 large egg yolks, room temperature
- For the Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:
- ¼ cup (3 tablespoons, 2 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- pinch of salt
- For the Classic Cream Cheese Frosting:
- ½ cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 7 to 9 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- pinch of salt
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 4 8-inch cake pans with baking spray. Set aside.
- In one bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl whisk together sour cream and milk. Set both bowls aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and cream cheese on a medium high speed until pale in color and lump free, about 2 to 4 minutes. Add in the oil and granulated sugar and beat until fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Turn the mixer on low and add the vanilla. Proceed to add the eggs and egg yolks, one egg at a time. Scrape the bowl as needed.
- With the mixer’s speed on low, add the dry mixture in three batches and the wet mixture in two batches, beginning and ending with the dry mixture. Mix each batch until it just incorporates into the batter.
- Divide evenly among pans and bake for 22 to 25 minutes, rotating halfway. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs. Let the cakes cool in the pans before inverting them onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter and cream cheese on a medium speed until smooth and lump free, about 2 minutes. Scrape the sides and bottom of the stand mixing bowl down. Add vanilla and then beat for a few seconds more. Sift powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a separate bowl. With the mixing speed on low, add the dry ingredients a cup at a time, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. To keep this frosting extra fudgey, DO NOT over whip at the end. You want the frosting to have a deep chocolate brown color.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter and cream cheese on a medium speed until smooth and lump free, about 2 minutes. Scrape the sides and bottom of the stand mixing bowl down. Add vanilla and then beat for a few seconds more. With the mixer’s speed on low, gradually add powdered sugar and salt. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Beat for 20 seconds to aerate. Divide the frosting and tint one half purple.
- With a serrated knife, split the four cake layers in half. Dollop a bit of frosting onto the cake board or plate. Place one cake layer onto the board and spread some of the purple frosting. Repeat this process with the second layer and alternate by using the chocolate frosting. Repeat this process with the remaining layers.
- Chill the cake for 20 to 30 minutes to really harden the frosting. Once firmed up, do an initial crumb coat in white and chill in the freezer for 15 minutes. Do a final white layer, chill for 5 minutes. Apply the purple frosting on the top and sides. Use a decorative comb to brush through the purple frosting, revealing the white beneath. Decorate the top with the remaining frosting.