Let Them Eat Cake
I have a go-to reference for cake recipes in addition to my Auntie Pam, who showed me how to make the Coconut Cake that has become a requested item. Said Cakenomicron has yet to steer me wrong in the scrumptious spectrum, so my faith in it doth not waver. I chose a simple no frills chocolate cake because I’d have a few things going on palette wise. It was going to be buddied up with strawberry and cream cheese, with a hint of flavored MMF.
The recipe wasn’t the typical creamed cake recipes I’ve done in the past, so I didn’t have a reference point when looking at the batter. I can usually obtain warm fuzzies just by the result of the batter consistency. Only thing I had going is that it reminded me of brownie batter in that it was thinner than I would think would be needed to make a moist cake. Fortunately the ingredients for it were plenty in the event I had to revisit making it. The result spoiled me for what would ensue as I headed towards D-Day. It turned out wonderfully. Very decadent but without the overkill. Which could also be as bad as Cadbury chocolate is good in the vein of it being easy to have more than you should.
The strawberry cake was where the fun started. And by fun I mean the point where your mettle is tested. My Cakenomicron does not have a strawberry cake recipe. After my experience, I can understand why. I located a recipe that got a lot of great reviews and ran with it and it tasted like flour. That isn’t tasty deliciousness. As pointed out previously, since I ran across a way to checker a cake without a nifty tool, I could redress this so that I was happy and not impact ‘schedule’ as it were. Now I was off looking for a strawberry cake recipe…again. Another consultation with t’GAWI landed me at A Dash of Sass , who also had the same issue and wouldn’t I know it, my Cakenomicron had a Hummingbird cake recipe. While it wasn’t the plan to be baking cake layers the day I was making my frosting and fondant items, it needed done. Humidity in my neck of the woods isn’t my friend, so my plans had to flex anyway. I knew in the back of my mind, with making two cakes I haven’t before, I’d probably be insistent on making them better. We’re a Scottish household, it’s also a bit rude to offer so little to QA to other inhabitants of Casa Primer. Subsequently, co-workers [including Trex’s] have been perfecting their sadface when they know I’m baking and I don’t send anything, making them guinea pigs. The FOR SCIENCE theme also should not be news to veteran readers.
Strawberry cake try number two didn’t turn out well either, at least I didn’t think so. The second had more of a sweet bread texture some sponges back home have. While not not delicious, they’re sometimes an acquired taste, like real true blue scones. Now I was slightly apanic, because it was exceedingly beneficial to have the layers stacked, cut and tiered before D-Day. In fact, the only thing I wanted to be doing on D-Day was polishing the last decorative touches. I did not want to be baking cake layers…again heading into D-Day. I had Trex taste some of the dome I cut to level it, because my brain was telling me it tasted like flour. Panic evolved into frustration. The only thing I was doing differently was making a dang-blamed strawberry cake. This was extremely new territory for me, I’ve never had a baked good taste like flour. Again, I go to t’GAWI to see what could be going on. The likely culprit was packed flour resulting in too much of it in the batter. Even though I didn’t pack my flour when measuring it out, it could have packed from settling in my pantry. The only thing sifting hurts is your hand if you hit the side of it just right. The other thing was this recipe isn’t a creamed cake, just a straight forward mix the wet with the dry until the dry ingredients are moist. I did the hand mix method, but believe I’d be better off using my mixer on stir speed. I also decided to separate the eggs and fold in the whisked egg whites at the finish. Tedious in steps and time, but the third time’s the charm. Turned out much better. While I tried to steer clear of colorings and the berries I had were a lovely red, I added a little food coloring to have the color pop. My main thing in tackling a strawberry cake from scratch was to not use strawberry flavored anything a part from the actual fruit. The first recipe that kinda burned me called for strawberry gelatin and I violated my first rule about Cook Club cooking/baking: not straying from the path by altering it. Technically I wasn’t doing something the reviewers hadn’t already done in tweaking it. Hence the reason I decided to use it, but I suspect the flour not being sifted enough was what did it in. Determined, I made the Hummingbird cake again, using the modifications from Dash of Sass, but ensured my flour was properly sifted and for extra insurance, I separated the eggs, whipped the whites to soft peaks and folded them in last. It was worth the ‘Eureka!’ when they cooled and I leveled them.
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