For this week's ABC selection, I decided to make 1/3 recipe. The full size of this cake uses a 9 inch pan. I was too lazy to measure by volume. I do have 7 inch, 6 inch, and 4 inch cake pans. So I went with 6 inch. The size turned out to be perfect. The cake rose pretty high. However, if you look at the picture above, the cake sunk in the middle. When I took the cake out of the oven I was so sad. I didn't know why it sunk and it looked terrible. I only baked this for 20 minutes since this is a smaller size. I thought maybe I bake it a few minutes too long, but it should still not sink in the middle. Hubby cheerfully suggested that I should cut a hole in the middle and call it a bundt cake :). If you have seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding this comment should ring a bell.
Now that I'm sitting here and typing up this post, I looked at the recipe one more time and realized that I had accidentally used baking soda where I should have used baking powder. Ahhhhhhh.. that explained the sunked middle section. Baking soda reacted differently than baking powder. I don't know enough about baking science to explain why (Hanaa, do you know??) but I have heard that using the wrong thing can be catastrophic.
Though this cake will never win an award based on its look, it is pretty tasty. What I love most about it is how easy it is to put together. Which is probably why I mistakenly read the ingredients. I thought it was so easy that I was doing a couple other things in the kitchen at the same time. Also, it is not as fun to bake from the internet. I still prefer to have a paper recipe where I can keep it next to me and care that it got splash. It is also nice to be able to scribble down next to the recipe.
Ok enough ranting, let's go to some photos, shall we?
Ready to mix eggs and sugar.
It only took 5 minutes for it to be ribbony.
Sifted flour, baking soda (should be baking powder), and salt.
All ingredients mixed!
In the pan.
Baked "bundt" cake.
I used the pastry cream recipe from The Pie and Pastry Bible (1/3 recipe).
Taste
It is pretty good. I'd say I have had better Boston Cream Pie, but for the easiness of it, I guess I should not complain!
Recipe: Boston Cream Pie
ABC is a small baking club led by my friend Hanaa. We bake once a month and for 2013 we are baking from the King Arthur website. To join or to read more about it, please head over to ABC main blog.
Jenn, I am with you on baking from a printed recipe. I much prefer it. Your photos are beautiful regardless of the sinking middle. =)
ReplyDeleteYour husband is adorable! What a great sport!
ReplyDeleteThanks Paula. He is very supportive and always cheer me on my baking mishaps!
DeleteThat's a great idea making a bundt cake out of it. But it looks great to me anyway and even more important: It still tasted good! And that's all that counts in the end.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to see that sunken middle (my cake tend to sink overall.. leaving me with 1 inch instead of 3 haha) Love your husbands solution!
ReplyDelete"Give me a woird ... give me any woird ..." I love BFGW!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I didn't read the title of your post, but I immediately thought how pretty your cake was! Until I read your post, I thought it was made in one of those molds that leave a cavity.
Yes, baking soda is used when there is an acid -- and there is always very little used compared to how much baking powder is used, so it's not only a case of the wrong leavening, but very likely way too much of it, which weakened the structure and caused the "birdbath effect."
If this happened for an "official occasion," I would have simply taken your lovely cake as it stands now, filled it with berries and dusted it with powdered suger. Everyone would have thought you were a master of technique (in this case, the technique would have been "cake rescue," but they needen't know).
Fabulous pictures, as always!
--ak
Anne, thanks for the baking soda explanation. I like your calling this a "birdbath effect" lol. Filling it with berries and powdered sugar would work wonders. I can already imagine people at the party will say, "how do you make the middle sink?" - they would think this in on purpose instead of it being baking mishaps.
DeleteAch, Jenn, at least you didn't grab salt instead of sugar, or realized that the amount of batter was suspiciously smaller than it should have been - and you don't know what ingredient you left out (all of which happened to me at times.) And the cake tasted good!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I used a smaller cake pan. The cake is very rich, and it's hard to eat a full sized one down without a house full of kids.
hanseata, I have done worse mishaps. Once I forgot to add leavening in banana bread and it turned out weird. Strange texture and taste so we ended up throwing it away. At least this one is edible like you said.
DeleteHaha, Jenn!
DeleteWe have a wolf-all-down at home, called Buffy. Baking mishaps are her joy!
That's good! Mine's a cat. So not as flexible!
DeleteOh no, so sorry about the sinking. I had some minor sinking issues myself. My bigger issue was that the cake's bottom was pretty gummy so I had to slice that off. Other than that, the cake tasted pretty good.
ReplyDeleteOh, and "ak" hit the nail on the head regarding her "leavening" explanation.
ReplyDeleteSunken but still looks good...Great photos!
ReplyDeletehaha, nice My Big Fat Greek Wedding reference!
ReplyDeleteHahaha, I love that part of the movie! And she puts a flower pot in it like "all better!". Too funny! I love me some good Boston Cream Pie, though. This sounds delicious! And I never mind a slightly sunken cake as long as it still tastes like a cake :)
ReplyDeleteIts all in the taste! As for the bundt - just add a potted plant and it shall all be complete, just as in the movie :-)
ReplyDelete