I had a lovely Birthday yesterday. And thanks to Em for the sweet post yesterday. I got projects planned, some of the house clean, made 2 cheesecakes (tried to make one a prickly pear cheesecake...it tasted yummy but didn't set up so it was cheesecake soup), and then Cameron and I spent the evening out at my Aunts house with her family, my cousin and his family, and my sister and her family. It was such a fun way to spend the day. Nothing huge and fancy, but it was perfect. I even got to have leftover cheesecake for breakfast this morning (that may be my favorite part of making cheesecake...eating it for breakfast the next day).
Speaking of cake...I opened up the email this morning and read over some of our recent submissions and I found a great cake related one for you today. Today's submission comes from Cathy in the UK. She started her email off like this: "My name is Cathy, I'm from the UK and my brother first pointed me to Pinstrosity last year. I love the site and oddly enough seeing so many projects go wrong has encouraged me to try out some crafty things myself. Since following Pinstrosity I have learnt how to sew, visited craft fairs and tried out more recipes (including the cookie bowls that you tested out, thanks to your instructions they turned out perfectly!)." I can't tell you how happy that made me! She gets the point of Pinstrosity! YYEEEAAAA!! Okay, carrying on with her story. "In fact so many of my projects have turned out well, I was disappointed that I didn't have a Pinstrosity to submit....until yesterday. "
That day she found the following pin and was inspired to get baking:
The Original Pin
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| http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/48/9a/44/489a44491418042448850a9434cce0cc.jpg |
As this photo didn't link to an actual recipe, Cathy looked around and found a great recipe on the BBC website that she used:
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| http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/532634/grannys-victoria-sponge |
This is a Victoria Sponge Cake (it looks HEAVENLY!). Cathy says, "It's a staple British cake recipe and is meant to be very easy."
She whipped it all up and "It was all going so well. I thought I had made a pretty good looking (if slightly messy cake)."
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| https://redrosestyle.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/cathys-kitchen-victoria-sponge/ |
"I went to get my husband Rob to show him and by the time I got back, disaster had struck!"
The Pinstrosity
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| https://redrosestyle.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/cathys-kitchen-victoria-sponge/ |
"I had not waited long enough for the cake to cool down, which the instructions told me to do. Oops! So now the cake was very very messy! But it didn't stop me sharing the cake with my family, and it didn't stop my family from eating it all up! And despite the spillage, it still tasted great and I can recommend the recipe, you just have to follow it exactly!"
I think this is a boo boo many of us cake newbies make at least once. I know I have...a few times. You think, "Oh, it's cool enough!" only to have your icing or filling to start running and oozing. Luckily, as Cathy pointed out though, it still tastes great even if it doesn't look magazine perfect. As my cousin Missy (who ran a cookie bakery for a while) says, "Taste before beauty!".
Thank you Cathy for sharing your story and photos (and the recipe! I definitely need to try this one out). Happy Wednesday everyone, I hope it's fantastic.
Yes, this will happen to a Victoria Sponge if the cake is not cool. It's a tricky cake to make. Being my Scottish husband's favorite I tried a British recipe (what else since I lived there?). The one thing you also have to know is that their idea of "cake" is different than ours. The crumb is coarser and it's less sweet. Also most sponge cakes here are closer to an angel food than what they call a sponge. It's essentially a yellow cake and I substituted Paula Deen's 4-3-2-1 cake recipe. After 3 different attempts over the years I also suggest that you do not use as much strawberry jam but spread it thinly in the layers and possibly add sliced strawberries. Make sure the whipped cream is stiffly whipped and if the weather is slightly warm,store it in the fridge. That was never a problem in the cool climate of the UK but it might help here in the States. If you really want to see how they do it I'd suggest you Google Mary Berry and the Great British Bake-off. There are interesting tutorials on British baking you can find there.
ReplyDeleteThis totally happened to my husband's birthday Black Forest Cake a few weeks ago! The whipped cream started melting because I hadn't let the cake and cherry filling completely cool. My cake ended up falling apart completely because the cherries in between the three levels caused it to bow up. The top layer slid completely off after cracking in three pieces. We had a good laugh over it, and it still tasted great!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness Ashley, that's another of my fails! And another requested birthday cake for my husband. Except he wanted a sort of Black Forest Roll. Of course it fell apart, didn't roll up and the filling smooshed out all over the place. I just chopped it all up, threw it in a large glass dish, added more whipped cream on the top and he had a Black Forest Trifle! He actually loved it.
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