Finally - the cover cake! Thanks to Stephanie over at Confessions of a City Eater for picking this cake (be sure to check out her cute dog!). Everyone over at TWD was very excited about this pick, as was I.
That is until the angst. At first I thought I'd get a head start and make this early. But I work in an industry that's a wee bit busy around February 14th, so that didn't work out. Then, as the days got closer to the 14th, my cubicle world started sounding like a T.B. ward. The coughing, the hacking, the sneezing -- it was only a matter of time before I caught the dreaded company cold.
Since no one wants to eat baked goods from a sick person (well, actually some of my co-workers would, but I want to save them from themselves) I thought I'd do what so many of the creative TWDers do and make a smaller cake. I went over to Great-News (simply the best cooking store in San Diego - hands down!) and bought 6" cake pans. How cute are they!
That was all good until I realized I'd have to do math to cut down the recipe. We've already established I'm not so great at that. So after much head scratching and scribbling, I decided to just go with the full recipe, use the 6" pans, and make cup cakes to freeze for later. Shesh - so much effort and I hadn't even started baking yet!
One of the very cool things I learned in culinary school is how to easily make a round parchment bottom for any sized pan. For my 9" pans I have some cool silicon inserts, but had to use the parchment paper for my new 6" pans. Very easy - just fold the parchment paper in half, then in half again, so now you have a square. Bring one side up to form a triangle (like you're going to cut out a snowflake) and keep going until it's as small as you can make it. Put the triangle at the middle of the pan, and cut to fit. Perhaps everyone knows this trick, but I sure didn't. I was the person tracing the pan on the parchment paper and then cutting it, and re-cutting it, trying to make it fit. This way is easy, breezy.
Because of all of the angst I started this project at my usual 7pm Tuesday night. All seemed well until the frosting stage. Just like many other bakers, my frosting seemed to take a long time. I was beginning to think that Conan O'Brien would be on before I got to the magic 242 degrees. Happily, I didn't have to wait that long!
I think one of the things I like most about this cake, is that it is so forgiving of BHMOTW (bone head moves of the week). Cook the sugar mixture too long and get a slightly brown frosting? No problem! Have a little trouble cutting your cake in two and have a big chunk fall off mid cut? No problem! All of these little mistakes are covered up by the cake crumbles. Genius!
The cake is firming in the fridge, but I did sneak a taste from the cupcake above. The frosting is really yummy and nicely complements the cake. A little too well, I'm afraid, considering I now have a cake all to myself. I wonder what my landlords are doing tomorrow???
See Stephanie's blog for the recipe. It's a keeper!
3 comments:
Oh I loved the frosting and the cake. A little too much! Glad you were able to make it.
yes, this cake is very forgiving. i messed up the frosting but didn't care one bit. i have the tb ward at my work too. sometimes i'll hear people hacking away and imagine the germs flying over my cubicle wall. not a good thought!!!
hmm...so I'm wondering, did you eat the whole thing yet? ;) Actually it keeps well for a few days right in the fridge. Glad you enjoyed it!
Post a Comment