Woody's Luxury Lemon Cake

This was a new recipe from Rose's Heavenly Cakes cookbook. It consists of a white chocolate cake with lemon zest, lemon curd, and white chocolate buttercream with part of the lemon curd. The recipe indicated that I should reserve some of the lemon curd to put on the top of the cake in swirls. I decided I would skip that step and double the lemon curd that is between the layers of the cake.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a chocolate fan. That being said, this cake is DELICIOUS!

It was very time consuming. I started it at 9:30 a.m. and finished it around 3:30 p.m. There were several "let cool for x minutes/hours" in that time period, but I didn't extend any of them.

Other people who have made this indicated that the cake recipe is similar to another one of Rose Levy Beranbaum's, so I will be searching for that one. I also need to find a similar white chocolate buttercream. This one was made very differently than other buttercreams, the white chocolate and some of the butter were melted together and then the egg yolks added to that mixture, cooking them. After cooling, this base and more butter were beaten together and finally the lemon curd added. The part that's throwing me is what to use to replace the lemon curd.

Madalyn's Baby Shower

I made a cake for a coworker's baby shower last week. In order to make a 12x18 sheet cake and 8" layer cake, I made 5x the recipe of Butter Cream cake. I did this Saturday, June 26 and shortly after putting the cakes into the oven, the tornado sirens went off. Since Bret and Schandra don't have a good place to go for shelter, they brought the girls over here to sit under our stairs. (While Terry is painting in the next room so that we can be ready when our carpet and flooring arrive any day now.) As I was trying to help keep the girls calm and somewhat happy while they are in a 4'x8' area, I missed the timer on the cake warning me to rotate. End result - on Sunday morning I went to the store for good old Betty Crocker cake mixes.

I did stick with 'real' buttercream. I made mousseline buttercream which uses beaten egg whites. Even though I have a 7-qt mixer, I can't double the recipe because there's just too much. The first batch comes out wonderfully. The second batch does not - it is a curdled, weepy mess. I refrigerate it for an hour or so to see if that helps. Not so much. I'm guessing the fact that it's 80 degrees in the kitchen isn't helping. I use the icing anyway, hoping that it won't fall off the sides of the cakes. I make the third batch of icing at 8 pm and it also turns out fine. I'm guessing that it had something to do with the temperature and humidity of the kitchen.

I had cut out fondant decorations for the cake. My 2" alphabet cutters were probably just a bit too big, as my plan was to put all of the words on the sheet cake and just flowers on the 8". Oh well...

End result was that the cake was enjoyed at the shower, and most importantly, Madalyn is a doll!

The week in review

As I wrote last time, I reverted to cake mixes for Olivia's graduation cakes. My original intention was to have a very leisurely week - bake the white cakes a week early and put them in the freezer. Make the white icing early in the week, on Thursday, ice and decorate the white cakes, and then on Friday night bake the chocolate-cherry cakes.

Unfortunately, it was not a leisurely week... I did make all of the white icing early - on Monday. The kicker was finding out at my Tuesday appointment in Rochester that I needed to come back for tests on Wednesday and Thursday, being at Mayo by 7:30 a.m. each day. Reasonable people would probably just bite the bullet, go to Target for underwear and deodorant, and rent a motel room. If you know us at all, you know we don't fit into that category. So we "commuted" from Marshall to Rochester 3x, leaving home between 3-4 a.m.

On Wednesday, I came through the basement around 6:30 p.m. At 7, I turned on the faucet and realized that we were out of hot water. Terry thought I was nuts and went down the basement to a flood. "Bad water heater. No peeing in the house."

The new water heater didn't get installed until late Friday afternoon. So much for the best-laid plans. Now it was scramble-time. I got the white cakes crumb-coated and then saw an invitation from friends to go watch a movie in their backyard. Sounded fun - when you're schedule is shot, what's another few hours! So after watching "It's Complicated" in Kelly and Wendi's back yard, I came home and made the first cherry-chocolate cake. When it was finished, it was close to 2:30 a.m., so I didn't really feel like making the other one.

One note about cherry-chocolate cake - it's HEAVY! For a 12x18 cake, there are 3 cake mixes and 60 oz. of pie filling. After making the one on Friday night, I made Terry mix the other one on Saturday morning.

B&S came by with the girls just before Steve came to pick up the cakes. As I went into the kitchen to get the last one, I noticed a hand print in the side - not sure if it was from a 3-year-old or a 17-month-old, not that it matters much! I felt horrible, but I guess Olivia just kind of pushed the frosting back in place and it was none the worse for wear. Terry and I could tell when we went to the reception, but other people might have overlooked it.

Rave reviews on the cakes from the attendees at the reception. I'm hoping that Carolyn can provide me with some photos.

Today I made sour cream cupcakes because I had sour cream in the fridge and wanted to try that recipe. Also, we have about 6 kinds of leftover frosting in the fridge. May as well get rid of some. I liked this recipe, but I'm not sure if I can compare cupcakes to a layer cake, the texture is too different. It's definitely a recipe worth remembering, though.

Fondant Reviews, Almond Bundt Cake, Graduation Cakes

The fondant cake tasted better than I expected. I will admit that most of the time I peeled the fondant off and ate it separate from the cake, but it was pretty good. AND... the Golden Butter Cream Cake is now my absolute favorite recipe from The Cake Bible - it stayed moist and delicious down to the very last piece. I took it to work on Wednesday and it was finished off that afternoon. Not too bad for the cake to still be good that long after I iced it.

On Tuesday afternoon, Terry and I pulled in the driveway after our two days in Rochester, and Bret, Natalia, and Gabby were just leaving after coming to feed the dogs and let them out. I asked him if he had given the girls cake, and he said that he didn't, because we hadn't told him he could. Being the good grandma that I am, I cut a piece and was feeding it to the girls.

Natalia: "I want a polka dot bite."
Grandma: "Sure; here you go. Here's a bite for you, Gabby."
Natalia (as Grandma gets a bite ready with cake, icing, and "polka dot" (new technical name for fondant)): "I just want a polka dot. Give that bite to Gabby."
Natalia (as Grandma again prepares a bite with not only polka dots, but cake as well): "No! I just want a polka dot. That's Gabby's bite."
a few bites later...
Natalia (as Grandma gets a polka dot bite ready): "NO! Gabby can't have the polka dot! Give that bite to me."

(Fast forward to Friday night when they came to visit)
Grandma: "I made another cake. Would you like a piece?"
Natalia: "Sure."
(walk into kitchen)
Natalia: "Where's my polka dot? I don't like this cake." (Mind you, this is before she even tried a bite.)

(Skip to Saturday afternoon. I've just leveled off a white cake before putting it into the freezer. Warm "cake topping" is a Nordstrom family favorite.)
Grandma: "Natalia, do you want a bite of cake? Gabby likes it."
Natalia: "I don't want some today. I'll just have polka dots. Where are they, Grandma?"

I'VE CREATED A POLKA DOT MONSTER!

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We were discussing Almond Pound Cake at work a week or two ago and I've been searching high and low for a recipe that I made several times a few years ago. I can picture the recipe in the cookbook - recipe on the left page, photo on the right... but I cannot find the recipe. I went through every cookbook and couldn't find it. I finally searched for Almond Bundt Cake and found a recipe that seemed somewhat similar. I had a little concern since it doesn't contain any leavening.  It rose though - coming to the top of my bundt pan. I made that on Thursday night and took it in on Friday. Oh yeah... Joy's comment: "What is the point of a cake without frosting?" Needless to say, she didn't try it. Jenn, Jeri, and Wendi enjoyed it however.

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I reverted to cake mixes today to get Olivia's graduation cakes into the freezer. I am making two 12x18 white cakes and two 12x18 cherry-chocolate cakes. The chocolate ones can't be frozen, so I will have to make them next Friday night / Saturday morning.

After going so long on "scratch" cakes, it was sort of strange to go back to the box. On the other hand, I've made Betty Crocker white cake so many times, I wasn't worried about it failing. That is one problem with trying new recipes - you never know if you're following the directions exactly as the author intended.

As I mentioned above, the warm cake topping was a favorite for everyone - except 'Talia.

Fun with Fondant

Years ago I tried using rolled fondant on a cake and I think we threw the whole cake away. Since then, I've understandably shied away from fondant. However, many of the blogs I follow and of course the cake shows on tv all use lots of fondant, so I wanted to give it another shot. All of the recipes came from the Cake Bible: 2 9-inch layers of Golden Cream Butter Cake, Moussaline Buttercream, and Rose's Rolled Fondant recipe.

I baked the cake last night. The timing called for 25-35 minutes, and I probably should've taken it out closer to 30 than letting it go the full 35. I let the cake (actually, there were 2 layers, so I should say cakes) cool a bit in the pans and then popped them into the freezer. While the cakes were cooling, I made the fondant since it is best if it sits for a few hours (or a day in my case).

The fondant went together remarkably easy, and the bite I tried even tasted good!

Tonight I made the buttercream and put a crumb coat on the cake. I put it in the fridge to let the buttercream set while I rolled out the fondant. Again, it was pretty easy... I'm a little scared about what it will taste like!!

After Terry left for work, I went to take a picture of the plain white cake and decided that it needed a bit of color. The easiest thing seemed to color a few leftover scraps of fondant and make a polka-dot cake.

I will let you know how it tastes in a day or two. Of course, Terry had to point out that it might have been poor timing on my part to make a cake when were going to be gone on Monday and Tuesday.... hopefully either the cake is good enough that it's all eaten tomorrow, or it will still be good on Wednesday!

Bad blogger

I realized that I've baked two cakes in the last few weeks that I didn't include here, and of which I neglected to photograph. I think it's because they were 'plain' cakes without any icing, so there didn't seem to be a need to take pictures.

Two weeks ago (or so), I made Genoise Rose from Rose's Heavenly Cakes. It was the first genoise I've made, as well as the first recipe calling for beurre noisette (browned butter). I'm not sure I am sophisticated enough to tell the difference between a genoise and a regular butter cake, but this one was very good. It was baked in a Bundt pan and brushed with an orange liqueur-based syrup after coming out of the oven. There was no icing added. Terry certainly enjoyed it.

Last week, I baked the pound cake from Rose's Cake Bible. Again, it was unfrosted. I did dust this with powdered sugar to take to work. Wendi and Jenn liked it :) One observation I had was that this cake is better when sliced somewhat thin instead of taking a thick piece. I think that it seems to 'melt in your mouth' more when cut about 1" thick.

Sorry about the lack of photos.

Red Velvet Cake w/ Cooked Flour Icing

After cleaning the oven on Friday night, I was ready to bake again - I haven't been too thrilled with the taste of things coming out of the oven lately; to me everything tastes a little too smokey. Apparently I didn't do a good enough job cleaning after the flash-fire in February.

I baked a double-batch of the recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum's book, Rose's Heavenly Cakes, yesterday in two 9" cake pans. They baked slightly longer than the recipe indicated; possibly because I had two in the oven instead of just one. They came out of the pans nicely with very little problem. I realized today that I forgot to take pictures yesterday, so I took photos just before frosting them today. Instead of a 2-layer cake, I am making two cakes with torted layers. That way, there is a small one for the family and one to take to Schwan's for taste testing. (Note: Terry was very kind and volunteered to take the Schwan cake in tonight when he works and share it with the Help Desk. He says that he will leave the rest for my "official" testers in Integrated Marketing. I told him that the three people there overnight cannot consume over half of the cake. We'll see tomorrow how that goes!!)

Rose's cookbook suggests a cream cheese icing for this cake, but I really like the recipe I got 20+ years ago that has a base of cooked flour and milk. I doubled the icing recipe, but I should have gone 2.5 times. There was not enough to adequately cover the sides of one of the cakes.

Terry and Bret were very impatient to get to their pieces tonight. I had to practically lock them out of the kitchen so that I could take photos. (impossible, I know, but you get the point...) They each gave the cake a thumbs up.

Also, as you can see, Gabby LOVED it too. We're still waiting for Natalia to finish the chicken from her chicken sandwich so that she can have a piece.