Kate's Cakes, Cookies, & Crochet: Cake

As part of this blog, I plan to document some of my earlier projects. This was my first attempt at cake making. . . well the first I have photos of. There was an interesting birthday cake I made for Kevin the year before this that had so many complicated layers to it (thank you Martha Stewart). I believe one of them didn't work quite right so there was some scrambled egg involved.

For reasons that now escape me, I refused to entertain the idea of buying fondant even though I'd never worked with it before. So I spent several hours making the fondant for this cake from scratch. . . Never again. I now make marshmallow fondant. . . much quicker and 1000 times tastier.

This was Amelia's Baptism Cake in March 2009. I believe it was lemon cake inside (the same cake I made as the center of my Baked Alaska - it's been a favourite for a while).

As a side note. . . oh for the days when I could see the wood of our dining room table. It now has a protective pad plus a pink plastic table cloth on it as the girls have taken over the dining room as a craft room. I can imagine what damage little Zoe could do to the finish in 30 seconds flat.

Somehow, attempting to make Baked Alaska has become a New Years Eve tradition in our house over the past few years. I think I finally cracked it. The ice cream melted a little too much (so there was no way I was going to transfer it from baking sheet to serving plate) but other than that it turned out pretty well.

Cake (adapted from Cooking Light's Nathan's Lemon Cake Recipe)

Vegetable Shortening

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

3 large eggs

1 cup nonfat buttermilk

2 tbsp finely grated lemon rind (about 1 lemon)

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare one 8" cake pan by rubbing shortening on bottom and sides, lining the bottom with parchment paper and rubbing the top of the parchment with shortening. Then coat the bottom and sides with the 2 tbsp of flour. I made cupcakes out of the extra mixture so prepare about 8 cupcake cases too.

Sift 2 cups of flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl and set aside. Beat sugar and butter together in a mixer at medium speed for about 5 minutes until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour. Beat in the lemon rind and lemon juice.

Bake for 32 minutes (a little less for cupcakes), rotating pan half way through until a pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack. Peel off parchment paper.

Assembly

French vanilla ice cream

4 egg whites

6oz granulated sugar

Let the ice cream melt for a few minutes. Line two 8" cake pans with plastic wrap (or cling film as it's known in this house). Spread a layer of about 1/2" of ice cream in each pan, cover with plastic wrap and freeze for about an hour. Wrap the cake in plastic wrap and freeze for about an hour (for easier cutting).

Divide the cake into two 8" layers using a bread knife. Remove plastic wrap. Assemble the cake and ice cream layers on a plate, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for another hour or so.

Preheat oven to 450°F. At this point I took the cake and ice cream layers out of the freezer before I mixed the meringue as in the past my ice cream has been too hard. . . . I don't recommend it as things melted a little too much.

Whisk the egg whites on high speed until stiff (Mum told me you should be able to turn the bowl upside down without them falling out) then add the sugar and whisk until combined.

Place cake on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Spoon the meringue on top of the cake and ice cream and spread out to cover the sides. There should be at least 1" of meringue on top.