Last Cake (for Heavenly Cake Bakers)

So here we are at the end after 2 years and 2 months. It sounds so long but at the same time feels short. Has it really been 2 years since this all started?

This week I find that I am at a loss for words. I have been wanting to write this summary since Wednesday and here I am sitting on Friday morning having writer's block.

I realized I am procrastinating writing this Last Cake summary because this will be the last one I write for the Heavenly Cake Bakers.

Sniff.

It feels sad because it is saying goodbye.

But hello, it should not be a goodbye because all of you are now my friends and I know we will stay in touch and visit each other's blog.

And... we have The Baking Bible to look forward too in the future. I am looking forward to baking through it with you guys. And maybe test some recipes, if Rose decide to go that route with us.

So this is not goodbye. This is... see you around :).

Now onto this week's summary...

Last Cake, Next Cake

A slow week for the HCBer. 

Kristina, back from her vacation and baking hiatus, made the Black Chocolate Party Cake as a catch-up. One would hope that back after a hiatus, everything will go all smoothly. Not so. The cake-making process went without hiccup, until Kristina got to the part where she poured the chocolate syrup onto the cake. At this part, she use a plastic wrap to pull any chocolate syrup puddles back onto the cake. Sounds pretty straight forward, except that the syrup melted the plastic wrap. Adding to this calamity is the cake cracking when she tried to move it! Not dismayed by this, Kristina resolved "Oh well, if you take the first slice from the place where it’s cracked, nobody’ll notice." Tasting impressions was good: "It’s a good chocolatey cake, and the walnuts definitely add a little something. I like that they’re finely ground, so they add flavour, but no nut texture spoiling the nice soft cake."

Our FEATURED BAKER, ECL, made the most perfect Bernachon. She had been preparing for this cake all summer, anticipating it so by freezing a bunch of red currants. Her thinking-ahead paid off, the cake looks just like the photo on the cover of the book! Even though she doesn't use the edible gold freckles, the shiny glaze reflecting the light coming through the window looks shimmery enough that to me it might as well have been the edible gold. ECL had a lot of fun photographing the cake. As it gets dark around 4 PM in Portland, it provides for an interesting setting for photography. As for the taste, ECL wrote: "This is a wonderfully decadent cake. The cake itself melts in your mouth it is so tender, and the rich ganache and bittersweet ganache are excellent components. I think I will need a little vanilla ice cream and a cup of tea to accompany my slice of cake, which is never a bad idea. I like that it is pretty easy to put together and yet is a show-stopper of a dessert."

Our last cake, the FREE CHOICE Wedding Cake, is slotted for the weekend of Dec 3rd, in 1 1/2 weeks. You can bake anything from the wedding cake section of the book in any format. This means 9 inch, 6 inch, cupcake form, anything. I'm saying this because like me, you might not want to or have a gazillion people to feed.

And finally, Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it. Enjoy the long weekend with your loved ones and please please eat a lot of desserts :).

Last Cake, Next Cake

Jane started the Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake while her roommate was still sleeping, which means she grated the chocolate by hand. "It probably took me about 20 minutes to get all 56 grams of chocolate.  My arm was killing me." A full recipe of this cake used 13 extra large eggs. Not wanting to waste the egg yolks, Jane made pasta for lunch. Fort he frosting, Jane combined whipped cream, chocolate shavings, and almonds. The result: "the icing tasted like cookies and cream ice cream which everyone seemed to enjoy. But as delicious as the icing was, I felt that the cake could have had more vanilla in it or something else because it didn't have a distinct flavor."

Melissa began her post by talking about fete season. I was confused about what fete is but reading her description and the fact that it's summer in Australia, I think it's the equivalent of fairs and farmer's market in the US. Melissa's gingerbread cake has a dip in the middle, which bothered her terribly because well, the cake's appearance just does not look appetizing. "It's really hard for a drab, brown, un-iced cake to compete with the glamorous girls of chocolate icing, sprinkles, cream cheese icing, banana cakes, marble cakes, chocolate cakes with chocolate icing, vanilla cakes with chocolate icing. You get the picture." The appearance is the only thing she didn't love about this cake though. "It has a remarkably balanced set of flavours. The sweetness of the sugar is balanced with the spicy tang of the other ingredients."

We have a new member this week: Colleen. Colleen hails from Santa Cruz, California who married a guy from Punjabi, India. She just bought a copy of Rose's Heavenly Cakes and discovered our group. It is sad that she just stumbled upon us now but we are very happy to have her for the last few cakes! Colleen happily made English Gingerbread Cake for this week's assignment, as she called it. Unfortunately her 1st baking adventure from RHC did not turn out as planned. The cake collapsed in the oven and came out looking like "a flat sticky disk somewhat between bread pudding and undercooked brownies." As she watched the cake collapsed, her husband noticed the eggs sitting on the counter. Eggs that were supposed to be in the cake. "Mystery solved!" This is why the cake collapsed! Though it looked "horrible, heavy, and quite gooey," it tasted delicious. Please join me in welcoming Colleen to our little club!!!

Our FEATURED BAKER this week, Mendy, made the White Gold Passion Genoise using Mango, renaming the cake to Golden (Mango) Genoise. He doubled the recipe for the genoise but only made 1 recipe of the buttercream. "Rose's buttercream recipes in this book are always enough for two layers." He made his own "fab" mango curd from Dole's frozen mango.Mendy found a mistake in the recipe for the buttercream section. "The recipe calls for 6 oz of cream cheese which should be 170g. However, 6 ounces was only 123g and the 170g was for the full 8oz package! I know it is not a big mistake but I feel pretty good for having spotted it! :)" Mendy, you should be proud! No one has else noticed this error.

Next week we have the Bernachon Pale 'd'Or Gateau on page 109 of the book. I would really like to know how to pronounce this cake. I've been calling it "bernachon" and even so I'm sure I'm pronouncing it wrong. It is not a complicated cake but it does have 3 components to it. There's the cake, the creme fraiche ganache, and the lacquer glaze. The cake uses some sour cream and if you do not want to have to buy both creme fraiche and sour cream, Rose gives an alternative of using sour cream for the ganache. On the cover of the book this cake is adorned with edible gold flakes and currants. If you don't want to use either one, you can follow Marie's footsteps and use other fruits.

Last Cake, Next Cake

Melissa's family are big fans of cheesecakes and pumpkins, so this cake was a hit. " This is a delicious cheesecake!" This cake, not only good, but rated easy on Melissa's cake scale. So easy that it's calling her: "Make me again, again." As have been mentioned before, Melissa really love to be part of this bake-a-long, though at times it's hard since she's in the middle of house and kitchen remodel. " I've really loved it and at times it helped keep me sane. I have loved focusing on something creative and delicious and sharing it with my family, friends and with you all. I have loved being part of something across the world, but shared. I've loved all the baking skills I've developed and (sheepish) I've acquired a number of fantastic new cake pans (gotta love that!)."

Jane, having made the Pumpkin Cheesecake, baked 3 cakes this past week: Barcelona Brownie Bars, Baby Chocolate Oblivion, and Pumpkin Cake with Burnt Orange Buttercream. The Barcelona Brownie Bars were posted in video form. I have not had a chance to check it out but I will. As for the other cakes, the Baby Chocolate Oblivion, while looked easy, turned out to be an adventure with water baths and cupcake pans. For the Pumpkin Cake, Jane went all out with pumpkin pan, green leaves and brown vines made with gumpaste. The end product was beautiful, with a picture of her happily holding the cake!

Last Cake, Next Cake

We have mixed of participants this week. Only a couple of people made the Peanut Butter Ingots. The rest, having already made them, bake to catch up.

Jane, having already made the Peanut Butter Ingots, decided to tackle both the Molten Chocolate Souffle and Lava Cakes and the Gingerbread Cheesecake. She was very excited about the Molten cake. This cake reminded her of a good Molten cake that she had when she was 11 years old, at Morton's Steakhouse in New York. Rose's cake had a lot to live up to, and unfortunately, it did not live up to the expectation. "Good but not worth the work or the wait or the anticipation.  I expected Morton's but instead I got Applebees. Maybe I've just built up the cakes in my mind since the first experience so that nothing can compare." 

For the Gingerbread Cheesecake, Jane went all out with a homemade crust. "The crust was part 1 and it ended up being particularly delicious." She had trouble with the caramel again, having to made 3 batches. I admire Jane's perseverance in her caramel-making adventure. It was all worth it. "The majority of my friends have tried almost every cake I've made in the past few months and they said it was seriously the best one yet.  The caramel on top was a delicious addition and the pumpkin in the middle wasn't too strong or too weak."

Last Cake, Next Cake

I apologize for a late LC NC summary. It's been a crazy week.

This is the week where everyone played catch up, as it seems like everyone has made this cake.
Mendy already made the Molten cake back in October last year. So for this week he made the Karmel cake. I love how Mendy breaks down what the Karmel cake is all about in a few words: "The idea behind this cake is pretty simple really. Caramel with cake batter." This is his first time using sugar thermometer and it took half an hour to make the caramel. He also made the caramel parve using soy milk and margarine. There's some holes in the finished product, Mendy blamed his baking powder math as he doubled the recipe. Fortunately it didn't affect the taste. "It was very good although the flavor was a bit subtle. Goes down right with a cup of coffee."

Last Cake, Next Cake

Only 1 person this week made the Angel Food Cake, but a couple of you did bake some catch up cakes up. Thank you!

Mendy made the Ginger Cheesecake as cupcakes. He prefers cheesecake as cupcakes as they are easier to make. Mendy's post is really short so I don't have much to report. The cheesecakes were really delicious and now that he knows how to make ginger juice he wants to try making lemon-zest ginger ice cream.

Last Cake, Next Cake

3 bakers and 5 cakes. 4 bakers and 7 cakes. Yes that's right. Our speedy baker, Jane, made Rose's Red Velvet Cakes, Lemon Poppy Seed Sour Cream Cake, and Chocolate Ingots. Jane made a 2-layer Red Velvet Cake and decorated the outside with colorful fondant. A little baffled at the amount of food coloring required to color the batter red, she proceeded and use the bottle of food coloring gel, resulting in a very red cake. "The cake was a success.  It was incredibly moist and the food coloring did not affect the taste at all." The Lemon Poppy Seed Sour Cream Cake was a big success, as proven by Jane's housemate, Elizabeth, who couldn't wait until the party in the evening and wants to eat the cake for breakfast. Not wanting to miss out, Jane also had it for breakfast, 2 slices to be exact."It turns out that this was a spectacular cake and I'll definitely be keeping the recipe around.  I've already had four slices today." Lastly for Jane this week, the Chocolate Financier. It calls for cacao nibs, which she ordered from Amazon. Excitement turned into disappointment when she discovered that cacao nibs are bitter, but then it quickly turned into excitement when the nibs were caramelized. "I guess when you put caramel around anything it turns out alright." As for the financiers, "I liked the texture of the caramelized cacao nibs on top but the taste wasn't my favorite."

Last Cake, Next Cake

We have quite a bit of participation this week, which always makes me happy. Sorry, I'm having a bit of a writer's block moment and can't think of anything to write in the intro.

Anyway, here are the roundups!

Jane was not really excited about upside down cakes but she was glad she made it anyway. I like Jane's rant about the difficulty of finding full fat yogurt. It reminds me of my own frustration, :). "The cake called for full fat yogurt and I had no idea how difficult it is to find full fat yogurt. Every type of yogurt in the grocery store is non fat or fat free or low fat." The cake itself was delicious but received mixed reviews. "One of my friends really didn't like it but some of my other friends said that they really did."

Melissa baked this cake in her newly purchased Pineapple Pan from Nordic Ware. Her family are big fans of upside down and fruity cakes, so she guaranteed the new pan will get a lot of use. Using fresh pineapples and coring it herself (unlike some of us who used canned or already-cored pineapple), Melissa's only complaints is that the cake part was too small. Even so, the cake was a big hit. "The tangy, lime caramel sauce cooked nicely into the fresh pineapple and cherry and created crunchy toffee like bits on the edges."

Hanaa's been absent for a while and now she's back with a catch-up cake: Apple Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake. She used a combination of Honey Crisp and Mccintosh apples from her own apple tree. The cake was a hit. "I loved the different flavors and textures that this cake offers. The cake is buttery, tender and moist. The filling has a great apple and cinnamon flavor and the topping is nutty and crunchy which was a wonderful contrast."

Our FEATURED BAKER this week is Lola, who creatively used papaya for this cake because her honey does not like pineapple. She baked this cake in a 6 inch cake pan and made the caramel with lime juice instead of pineapple juice. This cake also marked the launching of her new Breville counter top oven. More creativity, as she sprinkled pomegranates on top of the cake, adding "a nice crunch. The cake is an easy recipe and could be used for any number of fruit on the bottom (really the top) cakes.  Not my best endeavor, but tasty."
A shout-out to Lois for posting the link to her Pineapple Cake. She wasn't feeling well so she missed out on baking this weekend.

Next week is FREE CHOICE and the week after is the Angel Food Cake. This is the 1st cake in the sponge cake chapter and is a base recipe. It gives you the formula using 1 egg white. If you are going to use a full size angel food pan, then you need to multiple it by 16 (16 egg whites). The recipe has the optional flavoring of grated unsweetened chocolate (which would make it similar to the Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake) but you can really use any flavoring you want. Lemon, orange, peppermint, coconut, to name a few. The possibilities are endless. I'm looking forward to see what everyone come up with.

Last Cake, Next Cake

We have a lot of participation this week. I suppose it's true what someone (was it you Marie?) said a few months ago - that participation would increase as the weather gets cooler. At least around these parts it is cooler now. I now have to say goodbye to my summer sandals and resort to wearing stockings, socks, and boots. Nothing wrong with those except I love sandals!

Anyway, I digress :). Here are this week's roundup:

Lois baked the most beautiful cheesecake. Her crust is so thin and even and the cheesecake brown evenly. She splurged on the expensive Philly cream cheese and it paid off. "M first reaction was that it tastes like Christmas - I guess that's what ginger means to me. The texture is light and fluffy. It's very good but not the best cheesecake I've ever made. I would fix it again for someone who loved ginger."

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."

Last Cake, Next Cake

This is an amazing FREE CHOICE week. We have a lot of participation and among 8 cakes that were made (9 including mine), there were no repetition. Each and every one of you made something different. The geek in me thinks that is COOL :).

Lola made the Chocolate Tomato Cake with Mystery Ganache for her grandson's graduation from middle school. "Those teenage kids gobbled this down without a moment of wondering what the mystery ingredient was." It sounds like Lola had a lot of fun baking this cake, "it is an easy cake to prepare and bakes up beautifully." She didn't have quite enough Pirouettes sticks to place around the cake the way it is in the book, but no problem, as she made up by artistically left out gaps around the cake. Completing the look, she topped the sticks with piping gel.

Last Cake, Next Cake

I thought that after my ra-ra cheering at this dessert, there would be more participation. Alas, only 3 people made this cake. That being said, we did have 1 person playing catch up, which made me happy.

This cake is another winner for the HCBer, everyone who made it loved it.

Lola calls the Chiffonlets a "charming little dessert, not too sweet." She made them in a Maryanne pan, "which gave the perfect hollow for the absolutely yummy topping." The Kahlua syrup adds a nice dimension, making this a superb recipe.

Lois admitted she wasn't excited about this cake, but should be because it was awesome. "The flavors go together beautifully." I love following Lois' shopping adventure in Poland, where she uses the translator app on her phone to figure out which ingredients she should get. This time she discovered what looked like dulce de leche. The translator app on her phone said its "ready cooked sweetened mass."

Last Cake, Next Cake

This week's cake, once again, showed to us how amazing Rose is. Sponge cake with brown butter, syruped with passion fruit juice, sandwich with passion fruit curd, and frosted with white chocolate dreamy buttercream. Seriously, who thought of that stuff? The amazing Rose, that is.

But hey, Rose is not the only amazing one here. When I think about our little circle of participants this week, how international we are. We have a Canadian, an Australian, an American living in Poland, and a Venezuelan living in the US. Cool, huh? :)

Kristina, who finished all the cakes in the sponge cake section (Congratulations!), showed off her baking expertise by remaining cool even disaster happens. "When your chocolate and butter starts separating and curdling and generally looking disastrous, don’t panic. Whisk it back together, and you’ll be fine." Kristina always did an excellent job documenting her cake-making process with step-by-step photos and this time is no exception.

Last Cake, Next Cake

Penny was wondering what I was doing by her window :)

Ladies and gentlemen, the vote is in. Everyone loved this cake.

Lois, who hasn't anticipated that the filling has to be made 3 hours in advance, so this became a 2 day project. It is all worth it though, as she liked this cake much better than her Grandma's German Chocolate Cake. "The cake has a lighter texture, more chocolate flavor and the filling is thicker and richer." Curious about the origin of the cake name, she did some research and yield interesting results. "The cake was originally created  by a Dallas housewife in the 1950s; she used German Baking Chocolate.  The manufacturer got news of this and began distributing the recipe on its chocolate which was developed by Mr. German in the 1850s."

Last Cake, Next Cake

WHOA! After last week's low participation, everyone is back with a bang this week. Everyone made something different for this week's free choice. It was really fun for me to discover and read everyone's different baking adventures.

Mendy made the No Bake Whipped Cream Cheesecake, with the help of his daughter, looking like such a expert baker already with both hands holding the hand mixer. Mendy thought that the recipe is "rather unique what with the custard, italian merringue and whipped cream cheese." He made some modifications to the recipe, substituting the creme fraiche with cream cheese, reducing the whipped cream cheese, and used more egg whites than the recipe called for. The cheesecake was a hit. "This fabulous cheesecake really is light as feather. Well done Rose, you really captured something nice here."

Modest ECL claimed that her Chocolate Raspberry Trifle is a bit on the rustic side, as she halved the recipe and composed the trifle in a glass container that was too wide and too short. I thought her trifle looks gorgeous, you can see the creme anglaise seeping through and the beautifully pink raspberry whipped cream. (Yes I'm afraid I'm a bit biased as I have a soft spot for whipped cream). In any case, ECL made up for not having a pretty trifle dish by taking a beautiful close up and personal shot of the raspberries. ECL thought that the cake, despite of it having a lot of steps, are all pretty easy. As for the taste, it tasted wonderful. She agree with Rose that it is "deceptively light and very flavorful; the creamy vanilla creme anglaise, the tart strawberries, and the mellow chocolate genoise are a perfect combination."

Last Cake, Next Cake

The slowest week for HCB, with 2 participation. This made writing LC NC depressing. I know some of you have other plans/things going on, ECL made an awesome 3-tiered wedding cake for her friend, Melissa is probably knee-deep in kitchen remodeling, Hanaa has other baking commitments. But I wonder where everyone else is. And whether we will last until November.

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."

Last Cake, Next Cake

I think this is the 1st week where no one (except myself) made the cake on the schedule.

ECL decided to make the Tres Leches, a cake that she "faced with trepidation." Counting how many types of milky substance is in the cake (there's 5), she was relieved to find out that the cake is not terrible. Definitely not "a big soggy mess" but instead "retains its texture and toothsomeness."

Faithy is back!!! Just moved to a new apartment and been busy, hence the lack of postings, she said. She's making up for it though, having made Marble Velvet Cake, Apple-Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake, and Rose Red Velvet cake recently. "All 3 cakes are equally delicious" is the verdict.

Vicki made the Tiramisu for her son's 30th birthday. "It was easier than I thought.  I have only attempted to make it once and it was a dismal failure.  It resembled more of a brick than a light dessert.  Rose's recipe surprised me with the addition of Marsala instead of rum but I liked the flavor very much.  I also like how it's added to the egg yolks while cooking so the alcohol cooks out"

Last Cake, Next Cake

A short LC NC today and an early one!

Mendy made She Loves Me Cake in a bundt pan. He split lobotomize the bundt horizontally in half and filled it with lemon curd topped with fresh blueberries. "This was a fabulous cake! The kind of cake that must have made Rose famous. Very classic."

I'm so proud of Hanaa. She made 1/5th recipe of the Marble Velvet Cake. The cake looks super cute and has nice little swirls in it. "Rose has every right to call this a "velvet cake". The texture is phenomenal. Soft and velvety smooth. It just melts in your mouth. The chocolate sections are intensely chocolaty which is a nice contrast against the buttery non-chocolate part."

Our FEATURED BAKER this week is someone who decided she should "start facing my sponge cake aversion. So I started with the sponge cake I have the most aversion to: the Catalan Salt Pinch Cake." That person, ladies and gentlemen, is ECL. Her aversion is mainly because the cake got mixed reviews in the taste department. I thought it's impressive that ECL decided to face the challenge head on. And it paid off too! ""This is the kind of cake that you can just pinch off a little every time you walk by it, and if you start making special trips to the kitchen in order to walk by the cake more often, well, don't say I didn't warn you."

I want to mention that Hanaa is doing a book review and a giveaway at her blog. The book is ATK's Cook's Country Blue Ribbon Dessert. The giveaway is open until midnight on Saturday July 16th (CET) and the winner will get a copy of the book, so head over there for your chance to win!

Next week we have the Chocolate Tomato Cake with Mystery Ganache. I've read the recipe and it is a pretty typical butter chocolate cake, except that it uses tomato soup in both the cake and the ganache. There are mixed reviews on this cake. Some said it's the best chocolate cake, others said it's good but can't get over the fact that it used tomato soup. I tend to think I will fall into the latter category, but who knows. Should be interesting to find out, :).

One note about the ganache is that Rose said it should be made several hours ahead. However, looking at Hanaa's experience,  said that her ganache was still liquid after 3 hours so she ended up using whipped ganache instead. I think I will make the ganache the night before or early in the morning before I start on the cake.