Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Cake Review

Cake Review
 
Last week I shared on Facebook that my boys were making their own birthday cakes.  I handed them my Kindle with my Pinterest board, Cake, Let Them Eat Cake open and told them to choose which cake they wanted for their birthday. 
 
J first chose a cake which had European measurements (like ml and Celsius--I said not this time).  His second choice was this Chocolate-Coffee Cake from Eat the Love.  The only changes J made was to use regular flour in place of the 1/4-cup of Teff Flour and the 1/4-cup of Mesquite Flour.  I was quite impressed with this recipe, as the cake baked up with three layers of thick, fluffy, yumminess.  But more than that, I was impressed with both my son and his willingness to master the Swiss Buttercream frosting, which called for cooking 5 Egg Whites in a double-boiler pan.  He did it!  No lumps of over-cooked Egg White!
 
 
 
 
 
 
D chose the most beautiful cake on the Pinterest board, and the most exotic sounding cake: Blackberry Basil Swirl Pound Cake.  We were both drooling over the gorgeous photos which accompanied the recipe.  This cake did not have a filling, so he took a cheesecake recipe, cut it in third, and make a Blackberry Cheesecake filling layer.  But the pound cake recipe?  It was, um, mystifying, to say the least.  For starters, it only made one layer.  The dough was very, very, very stiff--almost like cookie dough.  And then the recipe said to bake for 1- to 1-1/2 hours.  Really?  D doubled the recipe and baked his cake for 1 hour, at which time it was done.  Very done.  Good thing he didn't let it go for the full 1-1/2 hours!  My personal belief is that this cake was supposed to bake in a loaf pan (which wasn't specified), but that the food stylist made/baked/decorated as he or she chose, and then didn't adjust the recipe properly.  But Oh! it was Beautiful!  I'd like to play around with this recipe because it has a lot of potential.  I think D did an excellent job with his cake and that every so often a Pin-Fail happens.
 
Excellent, well done baking for two 12-year-old boys, I think!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
"And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature,
and in favor with God and man."
Luke 2:52
 
 
Be like Jesus, boys...
 
 
 
 

2 comments:

Danita said...

Well done J and D! Looks like they have a touch of their mama's talent. So hard to believe they are 12!! Happy Birthday boys.

deborah said...

Their cakes both looked awesome! I saw them on fb and thought it looked quite fun to sample them both!

They did a great job!