Cake #4: Chocolate Cola Cake with Toasted Coconut-Pecan Frosting

Yet again this was a very different recipe than any other recipe I have ever done!

I had a little help today from a good friend (shocker #1 - as I don't bake with anybody and nobody wants to be in the kitchen with me when I'm baking! But today was a special exception because I haven't seen this friend in like half a year). I only let him prepare the pans and measure the flour though...that's all I could let him do! ;)

Starting with the frosting. It called for 28 ounces of sweetened condensed milk to which you boil in a glass dish covered with foil sitting in a water bath for 2 hours at 350 degrees F. Yikes! That was a long process in itself. Good thing I read the recipe ahead of time. So before lunch I put it in the oven and let it sit there for 2 hours, stirring it twice just as the recipe said. It got all carmelized and thick.

Next was the cake which called for cherry cola or Dr. Pepper! I had to go to a couple stores to find a small bottle of Dr. Pepper (I actually wasn't able to find cherry cola of any brand!). It's hard to come by apparently. So instead of adding dry and wet ingredients (usually milk) you add the dry ingredients and Dr. Pepper alternately in the last step! Very odd but supposedly very Southern.

I discovered that I don't actually have 9 inch pans (shocking?!) and so I used two 10 inch pans instead. The cake turned out fine but the presentation just wasn't as impressive with just 2 layers. Too bad. I really should have used my three 8 inch pans.

Taste Rating: 8 out of 10 - The super chocolately flavour and the carmelized sweetened condensed milk were good on their own but I don't think the flavours complimented each other. Next time I'd try a chocolate buttercream or any frosting for the same cake.
Texture Rating: 7 out of 10 - I liked the texture of the cake, although P has decided that he likes fudgy cake (like the Sour Cream Chocolate Cake) while some other tasters today liked the drier but fluffy texture of today's cake. I'm more of a fan of this type of cake. The texture of the frosting was okay too - I wasn't really a fan of the bits of coconut or pecans although I thought it would taste really good over vanilla ice cream. And together, the textures just didn't compliment each other.
Overall Rating: 8 out of 10 - I'd make both recipes again, just not together.
Difficulty Rating: 6 out of 10 - Today's recipe wasn't difficult but it was time consuming with needing 2 hours for preparing the frosting.

ETA: Pictures and to say that over time this cake tastes better! The next day, after refrigeration and sitting (as recommended by the recipe) it was more moist and the flavours just came together. This is definitely a make ahead cake.

Cake #3: Marbled Lemon-Berry Butter Cake with Lemon-Berrry Preserves and Lemon Buttercream

This was my favourite cake so far. It was light and lemony and a nice texture. Patrick says it was okay - he didn't want to "scarf" it down this time but the other guests really liked it. :)
I modified the cake recipe a little - omitting the lemon extract with lemon juice because I didn't want to drag Alex to a third grocery store that day. It turned out fine but probably just less lemony that it was suppose to be. Next time I think I will try the lemon extract to see the difference.

I also modified the berry part. It was suppose to be blueberry marble/preserves but we had mixed berries in the freezer and I just used those. I skipped the straining step and just super-blended it in our Vitamix. It was a tasty preserve!

The icing was much easier this time now that I know how to make a sugar syrup. What was weird though was it was the same sugar syrup I needed in the last cake I made but they gave completely different instructions this time and it turned out much better. This time it gave instructions to use a wet pastry brush to to moisten the sides of the pot to prevent crystalization of the sugar crystals. This was the way I had seen it done on tv and I will definitely use this method again.

I forgot to use the preserves as a filling between the layers and I think this would have added more berry flavour but I used it as a plating sauce and it was yummy.

Taste Rating: 9 out of 10
Texture Rating: 9 out of 10
Overall Rating: 9 out of 10
Difficulty Rating: 4 out of 5
I would definitely make this again.

Cake #2: Vanilla Bean Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream

Happy Mother's Day!

Okay, firstly, the cake was pretty easy. It was my first time using whole vanilla beans which I have always wanted to use in something. I've always liked it in my desserts but never wanted to spend the $8 for 2 beans. Anyway, this recipe called for it, I bought it and it wasn't super vanilla-y at all. I could definitely have added more flavour. The family's opinion was that it was a little dry.

Next was the pain in the butt icing. I realized at 9:40 pm that I needed a candy thermometer to get the correct temperature of the needed suar syrup. So I drove up to London Drugs and bought won for a whopping $10! :) Just a little more expensive than the vanilla beans.

Well, I went through 3 batches of sugar syrup before it was right - thrid times a charm right? The first batch got too hot because the thermometer wasn't submerged enough so it wasn't detecting the temperature at all. I dumped that out. And it was rock hard. Yum, candy! [Picture to come] The second try it crystallized as I was trying to tilt the pot of boiling sugar syrup. [Picture to come] The third time I didn't disturb it and I made sure the thermometer was deep enough and ta da - "soft ball" stage sugar syrup. So then I do exactly as I'm told and start whipping up the egg whites and add the sugar syrup slowly but it didn't whip well at all. There was no way it was turning in to soft peaks. I was worried! But I kept whipping and continued to follow the instructions and it finally came together. Yum! Unfortunately, it lost some of it's white chocolate taste today.

So cake #2 done!

Taste Rating: The cake was okay, not super vanilla which I thought it would be...maybe I didn't get fresh vanilla beans? I will have to check out Granville Island or some specialty shop instead of Safeway. :)

The buttercream was tasty the night I made it but didn't have the flavour of white chocolate the next day. I think maybe some more white chocolate might help. It shouldn't affect the texture of the buttercream either. It was very buttery though and just enough sweetness.

Texture Rating: The cake was a little dry but I will say that I think they keep suggesting too much time for baking. The cake shrunk in the pan and it was dry so I think my next cake I'll cut down the baking time by 5 minutes.

The icing was very smooth and after all the effort it was pretty good. I would make it again since I now know how to make the sugar syrup!

Overall Rating: 7.5 out of 10. The icing was a labour intensive but I did like the basic flavour and texture of the cake and buttercream. I'd make it again.

[Note: The spacing of this post is awful but I couldn't figure out how to fix it. The html is just too confusing and so I gave up!]

Cake blog it is!

I'm not a new blogger or cake maker but here is my first post as a cake blogger.

The plan is to work through this book "Sky High Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes" by Alisha Huntsman and Peter Wynne a la "The Julie/Julia Project".

Here it is...Sour Cream-Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting and Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze


Taste rating: 8 out of 10
The combination of chocolate and peanut butter was classic and super delicious! It was sugar overload though and I needed a huge glass of water after it. And I couldn't eat more than one piece.

Texture rating: 7 out of 10
The texture was a little moist for my liking. It was really fudgy-brownie like rather than cake-like. And the icing was gritty with a lot of icing sugar. I'd probably adjust this next time and either melt the butter or add a small bit of warm milk.
I halved the amount of glaze that I made and I forgot to buy some half and half so I substituted some of Alex's whole milk. It turned out a little too thick and not runny enough to spill over the sides.

Overall rating: 8 out of 10: I'd make it again
Well, it was yummy and the more I ate it, the better it tasted and I got use to the texture. I would make it again, but I think I might need a specific craving for it.

Cake #1: Done! 45 more to go.