United Cakedom: marble cake

Showing posts with label marble cake. Show all posts

Cake Disaster - Chocolate Orange Marble Bundt

Bundt cakes are my favorite, when they actually come out of their tins properly. It's so annoying when you have taken the time and lovingly mixed a cake and greased the bundt pan and floured it like you always have only to have the cake stick.

In fact it's infuriating.

When I tell people this they act like it's the craziest reason to be annoyed and/or angry. According to them it's just a cake. In reality that's exactly what it is, cake. But yet it's not just a cake.

You know the saying "it's not the destination, it's the journey' and that's the same for baking. It's not just about the delicious treat at the end it's about the process.

To start with there is a craving or a need to use up an ingredient or two in your cupboard, so there is a need to bake. Then it's gathering, measuring, and mixing all the ingredients in a specific order to make a smooth batter that gets poured into a tin and baked to a perfectly risen golden cake that springs back when gently prodded.

So, after all that time and effort to have your cake ruined because it didn't come out of the tin as expected it's annoying. Then if you are a blogger and like to write about these things you have this pressure that it should be perfect.

Life isn't perfect, but on the internet we like to portray it as such.

Like life this cake isn't perfect either, but it was delicious. There is a perfect balance of orange and chocolate. Because it was a marble cake it pretty much came out in half as you can see below. One half I ate as cake and the other half I made Cake Bombs - want to know more check out the following post.

Chocolate Orange Marble Bundt Cake

228g butter
300g sugar
4 large eggs, separated
340g flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 salt
160ml milk
grated zest of 1 orange
1/4 tsp orange extract (optional)
60g cocoa powder
60ml of water

Heat the oven to 170C/350F - grease the bundt pan with butter or a tasteless oil (veggie/sunflower) and sift a little flour to cover it and gently tap it out, leave to the side.

Then beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Separate the eggs, trying to leave the egg yolks in tact and then beat the egg whites into stiff peaks, leave the egg whites to the side and add the egg yolks one at a time and beat until just combined between each one. Mix the sifted flour, baking powder, and salt together - then add 1/3 of it to the butter mixture mixing until just combined, then add half of the milk again beating until combined, then the flour, milk and lastly the flour. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Split the batter into two - add the zest and extract to one batter and gently fold in and then mix the cocoa powder and water together before adding to the other half of the batter. Alternate adding to your well greased and floured bundt pan - resist the urge to mix them together.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, using the skewer test to make sure it's cooked through. Leave to cool for 10-15 minutes before inverting the bundt pan on a wire rack to cool completely - if using a proper Nordic Ware bundt pan they can take a while to cool so just leave it until cool to the touch.

As mentioned above the cake is actually delicious and worth a go. I have not tested this cake in cake pans, but it is an option, I would stick to the same oven temperature, but would vary the baking time depending on what size cake pans you use. But if it all goes wrong you can make cake bombs! Post to follow on how to make them! Because even after a cake disaster, there is always a way to turn it into a happy accident.

Happy Birthday Mr. President

In May of 1962 Marilyn Monroe sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to the President of the United States in a sexy sultry way that has made history.

First it was one of her last public performances, but mostly because of the alleged affair between her and JFK.

Not gonna lie I love a good conspiracy! Did they have an affair? Did JFK have anything to do with her death? We will never know!

If I don’t step away I can drive myself crazy with that sort of stuff. So, I will leave the conspiracies to theorists and I will get on with the cake making!

I am a little behind in posting this cake, it was about a month ago that a friend’s son was turning 21, and he requested this cake for his birthday.

The cake was a marbled vanilla and chocolate tray bake with a layer of buttercream before the top layer of white sugar paste.

Our friend gave me the stencil- that was super useful! So, with the stencil and my cake painting knowledge from Sprinklebakes I made this:

It is a simple design, but it has a bold stylish effect. The color pastes were gently mixed with a little vodka to make it easy to spread out and it turned out exactly how we all wanted it too!

I also gave them a pan of chili brownies because they were the same friends that requested chili brownies and told me they weren't hot enough! So, this time I added a bit more chilies to the brownies and they said they did have a bit more of a kick to them! I guess I will have to up my game again!

Why American's Call Football, Soccer (USA Cake)

As usual it was a British word first. I do have a discussion about once a week about words I use as an American over the words used around me here in England.

Soccer is shorthand for association. As in Association Football, it was a way to distinguish it from rugby. Originally Britain had Rugby Football shortened to “ruggers” and Association Football was shortened to “soccer.”

It's not an American word at all, it was a British word... “And the Brits used it often—until, that is, it became too much of an Americanism for British English to bear." (Uri Friedman: a senior associate editor at The Atlantic)

I do find it interesting that what makes America different is not what America did, but what other countries did to make it different.

No matter if it’s called soccer or football I am staying up for tonight’s Ghana vs USA and eating a slice of this cake I made in support of the USA team!

It’s a basic vanilla cake with red and blue swirls. It has a vanilla buttercream underneath the fondant. I used blue and red food color paste with a little vodka with a stencil of the USA soccer shield!

They have a tough first set, but I think they will put up a good fight!