tasty but pasty / sour cream butter cake

So, I had a bunch of yolks leftover from making the buche, so I decided to use them on the Sour Cream Butter Cake (page 35).  The ingredient list is simple, and is a typical 3 step cake: mix the dry ingredients, add butter and some liquid, then add the remaining liquid ingredients in batches.  Plus I figured you can't quite go wrong with a sour cream cake. Turns out I was somewhat mistaken, but I did deviate somewhat from the instructions, so I'll have to try this again.  Because my springform pan is black/glass, I baked the cake at 325 for longer.  I covered the top with foil to prevent overbrowning at 45 minutes, but forgot to grease the foil, so it lifted up the surface of the batter and I think interfered with the baking of the center.  I baked for a total of 65 minutes, and still the very center was not fully baked.  The resulting crumb was definitely pasty right after baking, but I let the cake sit as suggested in the book, and, as foretold, much of the pastiness was gone the day after.  Still, I felt the crumb was too dense and not fluffy enough for my taste.  The flavor of the cake is outstanding, though.  So, if texture is less of a priority for you than great flavor, I think this cake is a win, particularly because it's so easy to bake.  I think I may try it one more time at 350 and see how it goes.

 

Ratings:

Overall - 6

Crumb - 4 / too dense and slightly pasty

Flavor - 8 / great mellow flavor, not too buttery

Appearance - 6 / had to dock points for the uneven surface, but that was my own fault; it browns nicely otherwise

Ease of baking - 8 / a very simple cake, no extra steps involved

 

Details:

Bakeware - 9" springform pan (black/glass bottom)

Oven temperature - 325 degrees

Bake time - 65 minutes

Notes - Top covered with foil at 45 minutes.  Cooled 15 minutes in pan on rack before unmolding.  Cake tastes best after being allowed to sit overnight.

 

 

 

baby steps / lemon poppy seed perfect pound cake

Having just returned from out of town with a bit of a cold, I decided to start simply.  The very first recipe in The Cake Bible is perfect pound cake (page 25).  You can't get too much simpler than this--the ingredient list is incredibly brief.  Because I had an extra lone lemon lying around that I wanted to use up, I decided to try the lemon poppy seed variant (page 26), which involves adding a bit of lemon zest and some poppy seeds to the batter, and then brushing the finished cake with a simple lemon syrup.

 

The recipe is smaller than most, because, as Rose states, her trials with larger volumes of batter caused poorer texture in the cake.  As written, the cake is to be baked in a 4 cup loaf pan.  Since I did not have a medium sized loaf pan, I decided to use 3 mini loaf pans instead.  The batter filled to 2/3 - 3/4 full in each.

 

As you can see, the loaf actually split quite nicely by itself down the middle.  I did not enhance the split by making a cut in the loaf as described in the book, because, when I checked the loaves at 20 minutes, the batter was still too liquid to cut. 

After removing the loaves from the oven, I brushed them as instructed with lemon syrup (juice of one lemon and sugar) and wrapped in plastic wrap overnight to allow the syrup to fully saturate the cake.  The resulting cake had great lemon flavor, but was still a little dry and the crumb was dense.  I think I probably should have used more syrup and let the cakes soak even longer.  There were some dense spots in the cake that looked gummy, so I was concerned that the cake was underbaked, but I think this may actually have been uneven saturation from the syrup.

Ratings:

Overall - 5

Crumb - 3 / too dense and too dry for my liking, despite the syrup

Flavor - 7 / great lemon flavor, enhanced by both syrup and the lemon zest in the batter

Appearance - 4 / the loaves brown nicely on the sides; the cut surface had an uneven density

Ease of baking - 8 / requires minimal ingredients; the only extra steps are zesting and juicing the lemon   

Details:

Bakeware - 5 3/4" x 3 1/2" x 2 1/7" mini loaf pans (x3)

Oven temperature - 350 degrees

Bake time - 35 minutes

Notes - cakes were brushed with syrup and cooled, then wrapped airtight and allowed to sit for 24 hours before serving.