Last Cake, Next Cake

Something new for Last Cake, Next Cake. It always bug me that LC NC looks so bare, no photos. So I thought I would include a photo that I took for the cake, photo that didn't make it to the post. This one was taken the next morning. As you can see, the cheesecake slice is not a puddle of mess!

I did a double-take when I saw the first photo ECL posted of this cheesecake, because the first thing I saw on the photo was bacon. Confused, thinking to myself, "is this the correct photo/post?" Then I quickly realized that there is a cheesecake in that photo and the bacon is there because, as you might have guessed, ECL had the cake for breakfast. The bacon is not the only thing different in ECL's post. She made the cake in the morning before going to work, a decision she later on regretted. "I need to remember NOT to bake when there is a time constraint, as the project which may seem uncomplicated will become complicated and stress me out." The hard work paid off, with her saying "this cheesecake was a wonderful way to start the day."

Melissa, described the cheesecake as "amazing. It is really tasty and tangy, like any good cheesecake but it is light and airy and delicate." I love how Melissa mentioned that the cake " is not for the faint-hearted when considering fat, but then again, it has lots of calcium in it, and we all need strong bones." She served the cheesecake with boysenberry and blueberry coulis from frozen berries. Her family, loved this cheesecake, with her husband cheerily suggested that she should make it every week.

While the rest of us were debating whether to make the Groom's Cake or another cake from the wedding cake chapter, Lois, our FEATURED BAKER this week, went ahead and made the Groom's Cake. She baked the cake in a bundt pan and had some adventure in the moment of de-panning. The cake baked longer than expected, and when she flipped it over, "molten, chocolate goo began to gush out of the pan." Quickly, she returned the cake into the oven and when it finished baking, "half of the cake came out well, half of it split through the middle, leaving part of the cake stuck in the pan." Lois glazed the cake with some brandy, and proclaimed: "what my cake lacks in appearance, it more than makes up in flavor. It is wonderfully sweet, moist, dense, and chocolaty." You can check out Lois' post on the cheesecake here.

Speaking of the Groom's Cake, the tally of the votes from last week is 2 from Mendy and Lois for a 3-tiered wedding cake, 1 for Vicki for both the Groom's Cake and a 3-tiered wedding cake, and 1 for Rose for the Groom's Cake. Logic dictates that the 3-tiered wedding cake wins but I feel I should honor Rose's vote for the Groom's Cake (it is after all, her book we're baking from). So I've decided that at the end of this bake through we will have a FREE CHOICE wedding cake week, so you can decide to make whichever cake you desire, or make both.

Our cake next week is the Plum Round Ingots. I am usually pretty organized and read the recipe for next week's cake prior to writing LC NC so I could say something smart about this cake. This time I forgot to do so. Reading Marie's post, these ingots look pretty straightforward. The time consuming part would be to make beurre noisette. Aside from that, it looks like a cake that can be put together pretty easily.