When a cake gets lost in translation
This year's culinary experiments started out with me making a cake -- for the first time in my life. I made it for Ray's birthday by loosely following my mom's and sister's cake recipe. Mom used to make this type of cake for most birthdays and holidays throughout my childhood, and my sister took over that tradition. But you can't find the same (or even similar) ingredients in the US as in Europe, so I had to use the closest substitutes I found. For example, instead of quark (which, together with whipped cream and gelatin, makes up the filling), I used ricotta cheese; the dough was angel food, since it most closely resembles the kind of cake dough we use back there.
Angel food cake in a pan
Ricotta cheese, whipped cream and gelatin mass
Aside from the ingredients not having the same density and texture, the unit converstion tripped me too. It's hard to know how much whipped cream I should put into it, if the recipe specifies it in units of weight (grams), whereas here in the US I can only buy cream in units of volume (liters). As a result, I ended up with enough leftover filling to make another cake -- which I did, using a different kind of dough.
Unfortunately, I'm not much in the cake decoration department; I could not even spread the filling smoothly on top, and ended up with a lumpy top layer as one can see here. Blackberries helped to distract from it, or so I tell myself.
Angel food has been layered with whipped cream/cheese mass and preserves, but not yet decorated
The "decorated" cake (I can only use this word in scare quotes)
It was a LOT of cake, so there had to be found ways to consume it in a non-standard form, so as not to die of boredom eating the same dessert day after day. And there still was enough filling left to make one or even two cakes.
To diversify the ways of consuming the ole' cake, Ray cut it up into pieces, drizzling honey on it, and garnishing it with crushed blackberries, and eating it warm. It tasted nice and fruity, resembling cobbler.
Warm bits of cake with honey and blackberries
The second, 'crumb' cake
To use up the rest of the filling I made a second cake, this time using "standard" American cake dough (from a package that simply said "cake" mix, not -cake mix :-)). It turned out way too crumbly for a layered cake, falling apart in my hands as I tried to slice it and spread filling and jelly on it. Ray kindly suggested relabeling the failure as "crumb cake".
And still there was more filling left. Since a third cake would be out of question (who's going to eat it anyway?), I tried making pancakes out of the rest of the filling, by mixing it with flour. Attempt to fry those pancakes in a pan resulted in a bloody, melty, burnt mess. I threw it away, but not before saving a few unfried pancakes for a final experiment -- because there is no fool like a persistent fool. The final experiment was to bake them in the oven. This wasn't a complete disaster. Various parts of the pancakes alternatingly browned and melted, and while they weren't so great to eat as standalone, according to Ray they could have made a good topping for a fruit cobbler. Alas (or I should say, luckily for me), there wasn't enough filling to cover a cobbler, so I didn't try to make one. And so I bode farewell to my first baking experiment in years. I feel like I've had my quota of baking for the upcoming decade.
Pictures from the cake-making adventure are in my photo gallery.
Angel food cake in a pan
Ricotta cheese, whipped cream and gelatin mass
Aside from the ingredients not having the same density and texture, the unit converstion tripped me too. It's hard to know how much whipped cream I should put into it, if the recipe specifies it in units of weight (grams), whereas here in the US I can only buy cream in units of volume (liters). As a result, I ended up with enough leftover filling to make another cake -- which I did, using a different kind of dough.
Unfortunately, I'm not much in the cake decoration department; I could not even spread the filling smoothly on top, and ended up with a lumpy top layer as one can see here. Blackberries helped to distract from it, or so I tell myself.
Angel food has been layered with whipped cream/cheese mass and preserves, but not yet decorated
The "decorated" cake (I can only use this word in scare quotes)
It was a LOT of cake, so there had to be found ways to consume it in a non-standard form, so as not to die of boredom eating the same dessert day after day. And there still was enough filling left to make one or even two cakes.
To diversify the ways of consuming the ole' cake, Ray cut it up into pieces, drizzling honey on it, and garnishing it with crushed blackberries, and eating it warm. It tasted nice and fruity, resembling cobbler.
Warm bits of cake with honey and blackberries
The second, 'crumb' cake
To use up the rest of the filling I made a second cake, this time using "standard" American cake dough (from a package that simply said "cake" mix, not -cake mix :-)). It turned out way too crumbly for a layered cake, falling apart in my hands as I tried to slice it and spread filling and jelly on it. Ray kindly suggested relabeling the failure as "crumb cake".
And still there was more filling left. Since a third cake would be out of question (who's going to eat it anyway?), I tried making pancakes out of the rest of the filling, by mixing it with flour. Attempt to fry those pancakes in a pan resulted in a bloody, melty, burnt mess. I threw it away, but not before saving a few unfried pancakes for a final experiment -- because there is no fool like a persistent fool. The final experiment was to bake them in the oven. This wasn't a complete disaster. Various parts of the pancakes alternatingly browned and melted, and while they weren't so great to eat as standalone, according to Ray they could have made a good topping for a fruit cobbler. Alas (or I should say, luckily for me), there wasn't enough filling to cover a cobbler, so I didn't try to make one. And so I bode farewell to my first baking experiment in years. I feel like I've had my quota of baking for the upcoming decade.
Pictures from the cake-making adventure are in my photo gallery.