Last Cake, Next Cake

 

The HCBer had some adventure this week with these rosebuds. We have ganache sinking to the bottom of the pan, ganache not sinking at all, cake sticking, ganache sinking perfectly, cake un-mold perfectly. But even with all these issues and differences, we all agree on one thing - the most important thing. That is, the cake is easy to make and chocolatey.

Jane made this back in June when her oven was broken. She baked the cake in a friend's house. She liked the cake because they are quick and easy and made the house smells heavenly. As a catch up, Jane was going to make the Caramelized Pineapple Pudding cake but it didn't happen. She made the brioche and the creme anglaise two weeks ago, soak them in the fridge, and forgot about them. Sadly, they ended up in the trash. Determined to make the pudding (and to use the pineapple that's been sitting on the pantry), she went to a local bakery to get brioche. Sadly again, they ran out of brioche. So Jane made the Gold Ingots instead. Pressed for time, she made the ingots in 20 minutes. They turned out perfect, with her roommate exclaiming "oh my gosh, these are amazing."

ECL refused to buy specialty pan so she baked these in silicone cupcake mold. Her ganache sinked perfectly to the middle of the cake, resulting in a cake that is "simple, rich, and chocolatey," Though ECL forgot to grease the cupcake molds, most of her little cakelets un-mold perfectly.

Melissa and her son enjoyed this cake with a glass of milk. " They are fudgy, soft and delicate, with a bite of bitter chocolate from the dollop of ganache added before baking." Melissa is the only one who baked this in her newly purchased sweetheart rose pan, which she loved by the way, "I love, love my new pan. I was amazed and thrilled at how well it worked. The cakes just dropped out and left only small stickiness behind. All of the beautiful detail of the flower was transferred to the cake shape. Magic."

Our FEATURED BAKER this week is Lois, who used a silicone cupcake pan. The ganache sank to the bottom of the pan, making the cakes stuck and came out all funny-looking and dented. I love Lois' post because even though her cakes turned out less than perfect, you can't really tell from the 1st photo of her post as she drizzled them with leftover ganache. I also love her even-tempered post. No cussing, angry, screaming for what happened to her cake.

Next week we have the Ginger Cheesecake with Gingerbread Crust. As usually is the case with cheesecakes, it is easy to put together. Note that Rose gives the recipe to make your own gingerbread crust, or you can use store-bought graham crackers, or opted out of the crust entirely.

The week after that it is the Individual Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Rose used a specialty Nordic Ware pan but you can also use ramekins as an alternate.