Cake #30: Faux Fruitcake

I have never actually had a fruitcake, as far as I know, but apparently those who know a thing or two about fruitcake know that they have alcohol in them (this one does not), and that they don't like them. I know this because I read what Melissa Gray wrote about her co-workers "actually liking" this fruitcake, and because I took this cake to my office with a recipe card stating it's a "Faux Fruitcake" and some of the main ingredients. I caught several people in the kitchen looking at it saying "Fruitcake, huh." To which I kept replying "FAUX!" Eventually, people in the office started to try the cake and the rumor started to spread around the office that it was actually good!

You can make this cake in 2 loaf pans or a 10" tube pan, and I chose 2 loaf pans so that I could take one to work and keep one at home to eat during the Kansas City Chiefs' divisional championship game. 

The cake calls for things like orange slices gummy candy, chopped dates and a lot of walnuts. I made this cake after a trip to Stringtown Grocery in Kalona, Iowa (a bulk Mennonite/Amish run store with all of these things), so it was fairly affordable.

The absolutely most annoying thing about this cake was cutting the orange gummies and dates. I should have read Melissa Gray's story *before* doing this, if I had, I would have read: "Use a good pair of kitchen shears to cut the orange candy, dusting the blades with flour about every third snip." This is well notated now with my circles and arrows in the book in case I ever make this cake again. Which I might. Especially if it brings good luck to the Chiefs again, like it did on 1/19/20!

The recipe said to "pour the batter", but the batter ended up being about the consistency of cookie dough, not exactly pourable. I wasn't sure if a mistake had happened, but it did end up tasting okay.

The 2nd most annoying thing was pouring the glaze. I made a freakin' mess. The glaze was basically thick orange juice, it seemed like it should've been thicker, and I tried to pour it super slowly but it still overflowed all over the loaf pans.

The cake took longer to cook than I expected, the two loaf pans should have taken less time than the tube pan, but they actually cooked for 1 hour and 45 minutes before they were done (the same amount the tube pan should have taken).

In conclusion, I think I would make this again. It has the gummy candy, dates, walnuts and coconuts and goes well with coffee for a hearty breakfast cake.

Cake #29: Honey Spice Cake with Rum Glaze

 

I made a double batch of this cake and Cake #28 on 3/3/19. This one was much easier than #28, but not as tasty. After taking it to work the next day, my co-workers were complementing me on THIS ONE. I figured the rum glaze had soaked into the cake overnight and made the cake a bit softer and tastier!

This cake calls for a lot of honey, so even if you have some honey, make sure you have enough.

I made one in a tube pan and one in a bundt pan. Both turned out fine and worked well for the glaze to drip down the sides.

After making this I immediately sat down and re-wrote the order. Next time, I would beat the egg whites first in the kitchen aid mixer, then pour them into a separate bowl, wash the mixer and use it for the cake batter, then fold in the egg whites to the kitchen aid bowl, which is large enough to handle a double batch.

I would also mix all the dry ingredients either the day before, or after beating the eggs, before doing anything else, so they are ready to go. You know, like how they do it on tv!
The recipe calls for an extra egg white (2 if doing a double batch)- so you'll have leftover yolks. We separated the eggs while making breakfast and mixed the 2 yolks in w/ whole eggs for yolk-heavy scrambled eggs.

The glaze frosting (double batch) calls for 2 1/2 c of powdered sugar mixed with 3 T of rum. I only used 2 c of sugar and it was very hard/clumpy, so I added milk, pouring a little in at a time, until it had a thick frosting consistency. The rum flavor was very subtle, so I could have added more rum and less milk.

Cake #28: Spanish Meringue Cake

I made this cake and Cake #29, both double batches, for multiple things- Parent Teacher Conferences, our offices, and an anniversary celebration. 4 cakes in one day was a bit much, especially since the Spanish Meringue Cake has a LOT of steps. But, it is tasty.

The recipe calls for a springform pan, so I used the angelfood cake style one (above left) and a similar sized bundt pan. The left one DID NOT WORK so my main note for this cake is to use a bundt pan, although typically with a bundt pan you flip the cake upside down, and since this one has the baked in meringue topping you have to serve it bottom-up, which isn't as presentable.

The first thing I noticed with the angelfood pan cake was how much it shrunk after being baked- and let me say- I did the toothpick test on both and it came out CLEAN. Both cakes' tops had risen well above the cake pans, which was a good sign, but after cooling in the pan the first one shrunk back down:

In hind sight, this should have been a sign. The bundt cake turned out fine. The other one, after cooled, was actually quite gooey:

I SWEAR THE TOOTHPICK CAME OUT CLEAN.
I was motivated to save it, since it was a LOT of work. So I scooped it all up and put it in a glass pyrex bowl, and baked it in the toaster oven at 325 for over an HOUR more before the top stopped being squishy. The end result:

I scraped off the burnt parts, and it was edible, although much darker than the bundt pan version.

I also stuck a fork way down in the bundt version to make SURE it wasn't full of goo. (It wasn't)

The bundt pan looked fine, but not as nice as the picture in the book (below right):

 

In conclusion, this cake is excellent and worth it, but my tips are: 

Make sure you have plenty of cake flour, light brown sugar, eggs and TIME. And use a bundt pan (or 2 if making a double batch)!!

Bread Maker Cake

For my half birthday this year, I decided to make a cake in my bread maker. It has a cake setting, so it can't be that hard!

Even though I can, and often do, use the delay feature for bread, I don't think that feature is an option for cakes. The cake setting takes 2 hours to complete. So to have cake on a weeknight before my kid's bedtime, I had to make sure it was ready to start as soon as I got home from work. This meant putting all the dry ingredients together first.

So the night before I mixed the flour, baking powder, sugar, etc. in the bread pan. The next night, when I got home, all I had to do was beat a few eggs, add some vanilla and a few other wet ingredients and pour it into the bread pan and hit start. 2 hours later, the cake was ready to eat and it smelled delicious!

However when I took it out of the bread pan, I noticed that the bottom was full of flour and cocoa powder.  You could say it was "caked" on! So much that I had to scrape a bunch of it off and when I took the first piece and tried to eat it, it basically tasted like flour and was inedible. The middle pieces weren't terrible, though, and I learned a lesson: When you make cake in a bread maker, ingredient order is important. Or, at least, mix all the ingredients before you press start.

 

UPDATE: I tried making this cake again, and although it was better, it still wasn't a great cake. My tip is to make bread in the bread maker and not cakes.  

Cake #27: Fresh Apple Cake

I made this for an Easter Cake, even though in All Cakes Considered it says it's a good cake for fall. Ah, well. It's still chilly outside.
It calls for 1 1/2 cups of vegetable oil. And it's an APPLE CAKE. I couldn't bring myself to do that. Plus all I had was olive oil. So I negotiated with the cake book and we agreed to 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce and 1/2 cup olive oil. Now that I've made it, next time I would do all applesauce and no oil. Different results, but I don't see why not.
The recipe called for 3 c granny smith apples. I used 4 apples, which was probably closer to 4 cups, but that was fine. It also called for "raisins, cranberries or dried cherries". I used cranberries, and without trying any cakes using the other kinds of dried fruit- I'm just gonna go ahead and claim that cranberries were the best choice. The 1 cup of chopped walnuts added a nice crunch and balance to the apples and cranberries. In the end, I'm not sure why this isn't considered a variation of a "Fruit Cake". But the actual "Fruit Cake" is coming up, so maybe I'll find out soon.

So, the thing with this cake was... it was Easter and we were hosting. While the cake was in the oven, we decided to take the kids (ages 2, 3, 6) for a walk. The 2 and 3 year-olds don't walk all that fast. I knew what time the oven timer would go off, so when we were halfway done with the walk (a loop around the neighborhood), I texted the one family member back home who didn't go on the walk to ignore the timer, knowing the oven would be beeping at him. At that point, I took the dog and we power walked back to the house, arriving about 5 minutes after the timer went off, not a big deal as far as the cake was concerned. But the non-walker of the group had gotten annoyed by the beeping, decided to check on the cake, which looked done, and took it out and turned off the oven. Even though he got my text. So, I did a quick toothpick test and found it was still extremely gooey on the inside, put it back in the oven, turned the oven back on, and set the timer to check on it in 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, the walkers had texted to see if I could pick them up in the car, because the 2 and 3 years olds were wanting to be carried. Actually, the 2 year old, if you put her down, would start going full speed in the opposite direction, just to be a snot. So it wasn't like it was an extremely long walk and their legs were tired. It was just that they were 2 and 3 years old! I got the keys to their van (with 2 booster seats), ran out to start the van, remembered the timer and didn't want to repeat the cake getting pulled out again, so I turned off the timer and rushed out the door, and the car wouldn't start! I ran back in, got the keys to my car (with one booster seat), and got in my car and IT wouldn't start. I was starting to question my sanity, then remembered that my car is 18 years old and is funky sometimes with the remote lock/start. So, I locked and unlocked it with the remote key, and sure enough it started right up! Phew! (side note, this is all on April Fool's Day, yet it was the cars foolin' me!) I managed to pick up the walkers, get them home, and check on the cake again- still gooey in the middle. And I had a few minutes to breathe in and out, but it was a pretty damn frantic 20 minutes! In the end, the cake took about 1 hour and 20 minutes to cook, 20 minutes longer than the recipe called for, but that could have something to do with the snafu when the timer went off. After the 1st time checking it, I put some tin foil over the top since it did look done (the non-walker was correct about that) on the top.
Everyone liked the cake, especially warm with vanilla ice cream. I thought it had a little too much nutmeg. But then again, I used whole nutmeg shredded in it, and therefore I didn't measure it and I have no idea how much I actually put in.
I don't know if I would make this again, except it was fairly easy (if you don't go for a walk while it's baking) and it would be a good thing to make if you have apples to get rid of. I also don't necessarily think you'd have to stick with Granny Smiths. Apple snobs might disagree with me, but I'm not an apple snob, and I'm in fact more inclined to make a recipe when it involves cleaning out the fridge.
UPDATE: This morning, the six year old wanted cake for breakfast. I said "sure!"; his father said "Cake? For breakfast?!" I explained that this isn't really a full-of-sugar-and-frosting type of cake, and I could see it as a breakfast item. I was thinking about that while I was snacking on a slice at work, and it dawned on me- this cake recipe would actually make great muffins! Now I want to make it again, in a muffin pan, and see how that goes. Cake for Breakfast!

Carnival Cakes, year 2

Every year our elementary school asks (begs, pleads!) for everyone to make lots of cakes for their Cake Walk at the carnival fundraiser. Those cheap boxes of cake at the grocery store- you can make 2 cakes from each box if you don't stack them. They all require 3 eggs, water and oil to be added. I use applesauce instead of oil (unsweetened), and they turn out fine (and healthier! and cheaper!) This year, I bought a few extra things to make them a little different.  

This one sparked a bit of debate: are the marshmallow peeps worshiping the marshmallow? I mean, it IS where they came from. 

 

 

Blue gummy worms crawling out of a too-moist fudge topping. Mmmmm. 

(Remember, there will be elementary-aged kids choosing which cake to take home!)  

 

Peeps swimming in fudge- you can see the waves crashing on their sides (an attempt to cover up the non-pink marshmallow that shows when you tear them apart).  

 

This would work better on white or light frosting- colorful gummy butterflies on the cake. It didn't taste bad, just didn't show up well on that dark fudge frosting. 

 

The far-right bottom cake had coconut inside. I bought some frozen coconut chunks from Trader Joe's to add to the cake box to see how it would taste. It wasn't great. Now I know. Anyway, I added shredded coconut on top of this one so that whoever chose it would (hopefully) be a coconut fan. 

All of the non-peep cakes needed toothpicks to keep the plastic wrap off the frosting, but the peeps kept it off all on their own. Good job, Peeps!

 

Cake #26: Peach Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I made this for a late holiday family gathering with the in-laws, and I skipped ahead to make one that I didn't seem to need a kitchen aid mixer for (I wasn't about to haul that heavy thing!) Except for the frosting, hand-stirring the cake ingredients works fine. And at home, it would be a good idea to do that so you can just use the kitchen aid for the frosting without having to wash it between cake-mixing and frosting-mixing. 

This cake calls for 1 cup of oil, so of course I used 1 cup of apple sauce instead. It calls for 2 cups of sliced peaches, preferably canned. Then, in the story about it, she says "The key is to rinse the syrup off before you add the canned peaches to the mixing bowl". I didn't read that part, so skipped the rinsing part, but I did drain them. The cans said there was about 1 1/2 cups in each can, but I didn't know if that included the liquid in the can or not, so I just used 2 cans of drained peaches, without measuring, which was probably 2 or 3 cups worth. It did seem a bit heavy on the peaches, but no one complained. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup chopped nuts, optional. I opted to not use the nuts since not everyone in the family enjoys nuts in their desserts, but for those of us who do , the nuts would have made a nice addition. 

The frosting was a hit- I'll have to copy this down for future cake recipes that call for cream cheese frosting: 3 oz cream cheese (I use Neufchâtel because why wouldn't you?) 4 T unsalted butter, 1 t vanilla extract (not really measured), 2 c powdered sugar and 1/2 t ground ginger. 

For this, I was happy my in-law had a hand-held electric mixer. Although slightly broken, it worked for the frosting, where hand-stirring would have sucked. The frosting was great, and you could only slightly taste the ginger, if I happened to mention it was in there and you thought about it for awhile. 

I baked the cake for 50 minutes and it was done, so I took it out of the oven to cool for 10 minutes just like the recipe said to do. But it didn't plop out like it should (again, this could be the applesauce substitution causing the un-ploppiness quality of the cake) so I used a knife around the edges and got it out, although a few portions were still stick, so I removed those from the pan and did a little re-construction to the top of the cake while it cooled on the plate. It was quite lop-sided and unattractive looking, which is why it's a good thing it called for frosting. 

After it was cooled, I frosted it at the kitchen table and my 2 year old niece found out about the situation right away. She came over to me and tried like hell to get her hands on that cake. She kept saying "Want cake!" And I kept saying "Not ready!"and she didn't quite get the concept of why on Earth I was playing with that cake and not giving her any! I worked on perfecting the art of one-handed cake-frosting while the other had blocked the toddler. She started to have a mini-tantrum about it until she got her finger in the scraped-out bowl of cream cheese frosting and put that in her mouth. 

Then the complaining turned into "YUM!" and I realized this worked out well: she was too young to understand "Not ready"but also too young to realize that the frosting on her finger wasn't actually the cake, so she was satisfied with a few licks of frosting and didn't actually get that slice of cake right before bedtime.  

After it was frosted, I cut it into slices. With this cake you can cut the tiniest of slices or a super-thick slice, depending on how hungry you are. (Go ahead with that big thick slice, it doesn't have a cup of oil!)

Because we hadn't really talked about what desserts we were making, we paired this Peach Cake with homemade Chocolate Fleck Ice Cream, and it actually went really well together!