Test Cake #1 - White Velvet Butter Cake w/ Mousseline Buttercream with Gran Gala Orange Liqueur

My first test cake - Sunday, February 21, 2010

White Velvet Butter Cake: The recipe was for two 9" layers. My 9" cake pans are packed away in the garage, so I made two 8" layers and one 6".

Each 8" layer had 13.5 oz. of batter and baked for 24 minutes. The 6" layer had 10 oz. of batter and baked for 32 minutes.

For the icing, I made Mousseline Buttercream with Gran Gala Orange Liqueur. It was delicious!

 

The 6" cake was an at-home sample. Terry took one bite and proclaimed his praise! That's pretty good since usually he isn't forthcoming with his praise of sample recipes. When I ask him if they taste ok, his reply is "Of course." I am considering this cake to be quite a success since he actually offered a compliment! Bret commented that he thought the icing had an alcohol-aftertaste.

The 8" cake went to work for an Integrated Marketing taste test. Putting it in the fridge for a few minutes firmed up the icing so that I could cover it with Press-n-Seal. Terry took it in on Sunday night and put it in the Test Kitchen's walk-in cooler. I took it out of the cooker about half an hour before we cut it. The texture of the icing was slightly firm. It didn't take long before the icing was very soft. The team ate about 2/3 of the cake on Monday. I put the cake back into the cooler to save for Tuesday. Everyone said that they liked it. Jenn was worried about the icing since she knew exactly what Bret meant when describing the alcohol aftertaste; however, she didn't notice one at all. She just noticed the hint of orange.

On Tuesday, I brought the cake downstairs and immediately cut it so that Wendi could have a piece. The cake definitely needs to warm up before cutting. The icing was too hard right out of the cooler. Jenn thought that it was almost too buttery when it was so chilled. Wendi took the last piece home to Kelly who is recuperating from having his gall bladder removed yesterday. I'm anxious to hear his thoughts.

Summary

This was an excellent cake and icing combination. It is important to remember that cakes with this icing cannot be cut right after removing from the cooler.