4 posts tagged “cake”

I saw this cake while I was thumbing through an issue of Martha Stewart Living one morning while I was avoiding work and knew I had to make it.

The result: Delicious!

Martha's

Ingredients

Makes one 9-inch cake

• 4 to 5 medium Satsuma mandarins (1 1/2 pounds), thinly sliced and seeded
• 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, pod reserved for another use
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed Satsuma mandarin juice (from 1 mandarin) (Fish note: juice 1.5 oranges)
  
• 1 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 tablespoon finely grated mandarin zest
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 cup whole milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook mandarins in a large pot of boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain. Arrange slices in a single layer on paper towels.
2. Place 1 stick of butter in a 9-by-2-inch round cake pan. Mix half the vanilla seeds and 1/2 cup sugar, then sprinkle over butter. Place in oven until butter melts, about 7 minutes. Carefully whisk in 2 tablespoons mandarin juice.
3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Cream zest and remaining 1 stick butter, 1 cup sugar, and vanilla seeds with a mixer until light and fluffy. With mixer running, add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce speed to low. Add half the flour mixture, then the milk and remaining 1 tablespoon juice. Beat in remaining flour mixture.
4. Arrange mandarin slices in a circle over sugar in pan, starting in the center and spiraling outward, overlapping slices slightly. (Use slices that are completely intact.) Gently spoon batter on top of mandarins, and spread evenly. Bake cake until golden brown and a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool in pan on wire rack. Run a knife around edge of pan to loosen cake. Invert onto a serving plate, and let cool before serving.
   

Mine

I don't know if I've mentioned this before or not but I got a gig making a birthday cake for one of my co-workers kids.
His birthday is on Halloween and I'm thinking of making a spider cake, until today that is when I got an idea for a pumpkin cake.

I went to the craft store and bought a spherical cake pan and decided I would make a practice run at the pumpkin cake without actually making it, but what would I make? Outside of basket, base, soccer, golf and bowling balls what kind of round cake could I make?

The world!

Originally I had planned on making the cake with a white chocolate ganache frosting, I had never made one before and I hear its a good frosting. I put the cake in the oven and while it baked and cooled I made my ganache frosting. All the recipes called for it to cool, either at room temperature for a few hours or in the fridge for 30 minutes. I opted for the fridge.

Problem is the frosting never reached its full potential. Even after an hour and a half in the fridge the cake would just soak up  the frosting and it would disappear. Thankfully my boy Duncan Hines and his sister Betty Crocker were on hand to save the day. (Look, I'm sorry people I just don't like butter-cream frosting, I've made it a few times and...well...blah...its gross to me.)

Once it was frosted in blue it was time to make some land and thats where things went a little off. I tried to start with North America but I think I made it too big as there was no room for South America when I got to the bottom. Next I did Europe and Africa and they just came out looking funny. Asia and Russia are disproportionally huge to me. I almost forgot Australia, Greenland and England.
When it was all done I took a bit of white frosting and made snow covered peaks on some of the appropriate places.

Should I ever make this again, I think I can do better.

SSPX0957

The women of the office continue to be jealous of my mad baking skillz.
Today was the spring baking contest and I won best design.
Of course, there were only two entries as they forgot to promote it; the other entry, a banana cake, with banana frosting was delicious and won best tasting.

Thanks for the idea, Erin!!

Butterfly Cake