I made this cake for a friend's dance-themed birthday party (mostly watching cheesy dance movies while eating delicious pizza and drinking margaritas). i am sad to say that it was something of a disappointment (to me - everyone else seemed to enjoy it. but of course they could easily have just been being nice). but i think it has great potential. that's why this is just a little weekend lagniappe rather than a real recipe - you can gaze upon its rough-hewn splendor and imagine how nice it will be once i mess with the technique more.
i got the recipe from a site that i normally really love, although i have also made another cake from there that didn't turn out well, so maybe i need to just give up on the cake aspect of it.
maybe some of it had to do with the freaky jumbo eggs i was using. although i did adjust for their size in the measurements, there is something truly creepy about every egg in the dozen having double yolks. that is probably why they are not usually called for in recipes. no one needs to see all those conjoined twin would-be chickens staring back at them from the mixing bowl. i don't know - maybe that threw the whole thing off.
the main problem i had with the cake was its texture (not very light) and its relative lack of strawberry flavor (despite being nominally a strawberry cake). i am going to try to fix this by beating the egg whites so they add more lifty structure and using fresh AND freeze-dried strawberries to up the berriness.
good things about the cake were 1) it is CAKE 2) rhubarb curd filling 3) cream cheese frosting.
i dyed the frosting for the top with beets and cocoa (thanks for the idea, beth!) and both worked well, if somewhat luridly in the case of the beets. the design is a little rough because i used a cone of parchment to pipe it on and only had 6 minutes in which to do it. so.
at least it went well with the birthday movie-watching - flashdance and breakin' (we did not, sadly, get around to watching breakin' 2: electric boogaloo, although i have had the pleasure of seeing it before anyway).
1) you are quite the cakeress. i have been intimidated to try cake bakery at this point, but you are inspirational, and this one is beautiful!
ReplyDelete2) i required my students to view "breakin' 2: electric boogaloo" for a class discussion at the end of the school year. they were mesmerized. (as well they should be.) the hospital dance montage? holy smokes!