Disaster Revisited: The Cake

I never really understood why my cakes were soggy in the middle and hardly ever rose.
You would think that such creations would never see the light of the day. Au contraire. I always took them dished them up, mostly at picnics, never realising that in doing so I was consolidating a certain reputation.
Till not long ago, a friend arrived for lunch complete with a hand made cardboard box full of pepper-flavoured cookies, presented with the following sentence : " you have bought me some non edible desserts in the past, now it is my turn" who could blame him really and by the way, the pepper cookies were delicious.

So when I read an invitation to revisit my dessert memory vault and take another look back at...a dessert disaster. I was in. You could too: Sugar High Friday is the The Domestic Goddess' brain child.

Slightly worried though I decided to approach the cake from a "one portion angle". I also broke my rules and bought all the ingredients. To make sure of sure I got the recipe out of what I consider the best baking cook-book: The Baker by Leanne Kitchen and to leave no room for the devil to do is work I follow the recipe for Little Jam-Filled Cakes step by step.

Perfection, loveliness, risen to plume height in the sky ( may be not that high), cooked in the middle, light, great recipe ..........at least for the first batch. For the second, I decide to put a little paper-cup in the holes....disaster: the cakes ate the paper which in turn meant that if we wanted to eat the cakes we had to cut off the edges.
Little Jam- Filled Cakes
IngredientsMakes 12
75g (2 1/2 0z) unsalted melted butter, plus more for tin
170 g 960z/ 1/4 cup) granulated sugar superine
2 large eggs
280g 910oz/2 1/1 cups) self-raising flour
250ml (9fl oz/1 cup)milk
6 tablespoons strawberry jam or preserves
1/2 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
6 small strawberries, hulled and thinly slice
icing (confectioner's) sugar, for dusting (optional)

Method
1.Preheat oven to 200C (400F/Gas6). Butter a standard 12-cup muffin tin; set aside.
2. Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the sugar and stir to combine. Make a well in the center
3.In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and butter. Pour into the well in the flour mixture and gradually stir until just combined, using a large metal spoon.
4. Spoon 3/4 of the cake batter into the muffin holes. tope each with 1/2 teaspoon of the jam then cover with the remaining batter.
5. Fan the strawberry slices over each cake, gently pressing them in.
6.Bake for 20 minutes or until lighly golden or until a cake tester inserted in top cake layer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to coll in the tin for 5 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to coll completely.
7. Dust with icing sugar if desired
8. Little jam-filled cakes are best eaten the day they are made but keep well in a cake tin .......and I have just got one.....hand made by a friend.

2 comments:

Rachel Medanic said...

Hello Solange,

The cakes look gorgeous- I love your story and your discipline in sharing with us. Delicious I am sure! Thank you again for taking the Personal Feat of Dessert Challenge for Sugar High Friday #65!

Best wishes
Rachel @ Vampituity, an Improvised Perspective

Solange Berchemin of Pebble Soup said...

Thanks for taking the time to comment

si

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