Maiden cake voyage — Geezer needs input

[JeanneCake]

Yep, that original carrot recipe is huge, and I think it made more than 3 12" rounds IMHO.  I've quickly looked at dividing it into thirds and come up with this:

 

1 1/2 cups oil (use vegetable oil)

1 1/4 cups whole eggs

5 cups shredded carrots (if you can grate the carrots yourself so much the better.  The ones that are pre-grated are very very dry, but convenient.  If you have a food processor, use the shredder disk if you have it.  Peel the carrots first. I know it sounds pedantic, but I once made a carrot cake without peeling the carrots first to see if it made a difference.  And it did; I hated the way it tasted so now I always peel the carrots)

 

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup crushed pineapple (I'm wondering if it should be drained first. It adds a lot of moisture, even when well-drained.  So I'd probably drain it first.  Add the leftover juice to something

1 cup raisins (I like to plump up raisins and other dried fruit before using it in a recipe.  If it's hard when you use it, it's not going to soften up when baked.)

 

3 1/3 cups flour (use all purpose, not cake flour)

3 1/3 cups sugar

1 TBL baking soda

1 TBL cinnamon

2 tsp salt

 

 

I'd go for the two 9" pans and you might have a little bit of batter left for a cupcake or two....  Definitely line the baking pans with parchment, the cake will release better even though it has all that oil in it...

[CatPoet]

Simple sponge cake

 

2 eggs

200 ml  sugar

300 ml  plain flour

2 teaspoon  baking powder

150 ml  water or orange juice or milk

2 teaspoon  vanilla 

 

Grease 8 inch   tube pan and dust it with  flour.  Turn the oven  175 C.  Whisk  egg and sugar until fluffy and pale.   Add vanilla.    in a separate bowl mix flour and baking powder,  Add to the eggs and combine  and then add the  liquid and  whisk until smooth.  Pour into  the pan and bake 30 minutes  until  done.   Leave for 5 mins and then turn.

 

This recipe comes from  a cook book called  We cook and bake for the first time,  recipes from 3 years old and up,  I think that could be easy. 

[BrooksNYC]

You've all been so kind to me.

 

Tackle a cake. If it doesn't turn out so hot, use it in a trifle. (Then tackle another cake.)

 

HA, cakewalk!  Between trifle and whisky balls, baking a cake suddenly seems like a no-lose proposition.

 

And never mind the tiptoe through the tulips... damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

 

I plan to follow your excellent advice, Tri2Cook. And I wouldn't deviate from a proven recipe first time out. I know enough to know that pastry is exacting in a way that, say, yeast breads (which, believe it or not, I baked successfully for years) aren't. 

 

JeanneCake, you're an angel. Thank you for downsizing that recipe. Your tips about carrot prep, draining the pineapple, and plumping the raisins are invaluable. (The chefs' original recipe didn't mention those steps. Maybe they assumed I'd know these things.)

 

CatPoet, the sponge cake looks great, and — for a cake — not too unhealthy. (I appreciate that.) Knowing that it comes from a cookbook for three-year-olds puts a fire in my belly. I'm a proud man, and refuse to be out-baked by Swedish toddlers.

 

Again, sincere thanks to all of you for your kindhearted support.

 

B.

 

 

 

Edited October 2, 2014 by BrooksNYC (log)

[CatPoet]

That was the first cake I baked.

I have an lovely chocolate cake recipe that I will give you tomorrow when I am less drunk.

[stuartlikesstrudel]

Just popping in to say I loved reading this thread! A bunch of people helping each other in the name of cake... kinda restores one's faith in humanity and the internet

 

BrooksNYC, I hope you bake something amazing! You sound like you have such a great attitude to life and I really like that you're doing those "one day" things we all stash away. May Saint Honore, the patron saint of bakers, smile upon you!

[BrooksNYC]

Thanks for your kind post, Stuart.

I'm not a particularly optimistic soul by nature, so credit for the upbeat tone of this thread goes to all the generous folks who chimed in with recipes and words of encouragement.

(Am delighted to have Saint Honore in my corner as well!)

 

[CatPoet]

This is the recipe me and my two year old used yesterday, if she can  use electric whisk and just add stuff, so can you.

 

Sockerkaka  ( sugar cake, like a sponge cake)
 

75 grams butter or 50 ml  rapeseed oil / canoila oil

2  eggs

200 ml sugar

300 ml flour

2 teaspoon  baking powder

2 teaspoon vanilla  or  zest of half a lemon or orange

100 ml  milk

 

You need 1 cake pan that can hold 1½ liter liquid,   shape is not issue,  I use my loafs pans for this when I do a full recipe.

Grease and dust  with flour the  pan of your choice, Turn on the oven to 175 C

 

Melt the butter and set a side. ( if using oil do nothing to it). In a bowl  mix flour and baking powder, if you whisk you dont need to sift.   In separate bowl whisk egg and sugar  fluffy and pale. Add  flour mixture and combine.  Pour in milk , butter/ oil and flavouring  and whisk again.  Pour in the   the batter and bake the  cake in the lower part of the oven for  30- 50 min  ( cover with baking paper if the cake is browning to early).  Test with skewer , if  it come out clean the cake is done.

[CatPoet]

Farmors  Chokladkaka   ( Paternal grandmother's  chocolate cake  )

 

100 ml unsweetened  cocoa powder

225 ml  milk

125 ml sugar

125 grams butter

150 grams  sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

350 ml flour

1½ teaspoon baking powder

 

You need a  cake pan that can hold 1½ litre of liquid.  I use a loaf pan for this recipe.

 

Mix cocoa,  first measurement of  sugar and milk in a small pot and  whisk while bringing to a boil, remove from the heat and let it cool to hand hot. Turn the oven on to 175 C and grease the pan with  butter and dust with flour.

Cream butter and sugar until soft and creamy.  Add the eggs and vanilla.  In a separate bowl  mix flour and  baking powder.  Add  a little of the chocolate milk to the eggs and stir, then  add a bit of the flour and stir and keep going to all is done.  Stir until smooth. Pour into the pan and  bake  on the lower shelf in the oven for  50- 60 min.  Turn our from the pan and let cool on rack.

 

 

I always does this in a loaf pan and the reason why is I can cut  in layers, add  jam/preserve/ marmalade  built the cake back up again and add chocolate frosting and have an amazing dessert.  I love cherry  or apricot  now but back in the day when I wasnt intolerant to  citrus I used  orange marmalade. 

[Smithy]

I have bookmarked the Farmors Chokladkaka recipe, CatPoet.  I am sooo going to try it.  I love the idea of slicing it and putting in layers.   

[CatPoet]

Smithy, I love this cake and it does take 1 hour even if it smells done after 30 min.  Just remember to slice length way, just like it cake and if you want to be different you can make a stripy cake by using the  sockerkake recipe and alternating the layer  of white and chocolate cake. 

If you  wonder why the long name in English, well farmor means father's mother  and  for the other type of granny  it is mormor  ( mother´s mother).

[BrooksNYC]

Dear CatPoet,

Thank you for taking the time to post so many of your wonderful recipes. Emboldened by this thread, I'm 100% confident that I will be able to crank out a few excellent cakes. 

 

........back in the day when I wasnt intolerant to  citrus I used  orange marmalade. 

 

That's terrible! I'd be inconsolable if I had to give up marmalade. Wouldn't have thought to use it as a cake filling, but it's a fantastic idea. When I try it, I will think of you.

 

Thank you again for all your support!

 

Brooks

 

[Lindacakes]

 

 

With the brevity of life hitting home, I'm taking stock of projects I swore I'd get around to "one day" (which — as we know — never comes to chronic lollygaggers). Among those projects is baking a cake. Digging through decades of recipes saved but never made, I unearthed recipes for two cakes I enjoyed once upon a time. With no ambition other than to revisit old pleasures, I thought, if not now, when?

 

 

Ah, cakes enjoyed once upon a time.  Something about cakes that are eaten repeatedly.  Proustian memories.  Associations to the baker and the occasions.  A worthy goal.  We all have hundreds of recipes we'll never make . . . 

[CatPoet]

Brooks: Have  fun baking!

I am making a  birthday cake  today, filled with chokeberry  marmalade. 

[BrooksNYC]

Proustian memories.

 

Foods, and also smells! When sense memory kicks in hard, it's like time travel. Last week, someone passed me on the street wearing patchouli oil, and one whiff instantly evoked my teenage self who, in the East Village in 1970, was agonizingly and unrequitedly in love with someone who wore it. (Patchouli was a popular once. Don't judge me!)

My "Proustian" foods are the foods of my New Orleans childhood: gumbo, red beans and rice, and bread pudding with whiskey sauce. (Someone should start a thread about Proustian foods.)

 

I am making a birthday cake today, filled with chokeberry marmalade. 

 

I had to look up chokeberries, which we apparently have in the USA. Don't think I've ever tasted one.

 

Happy Birthday to the lucky birthday person!

[CatPoet]

The  chokeberry didnt works so we made bramble cake for out beloved 82 year old  neighbour.  I used a recipe called cake bottom cake  as replacement, one I normally use, it is very neutral in flavour and  easy to make if you can get potato starch / potato meal. 

[JohnT]

So Brooks, it is now a month since you set the challenge, so I pose the question(s): Where is the report-back? How did the cake turn out? Where are the photo's? John.