"Buttermilk Country Cake"
and
"She Loves Me Cake"
by Rose Levy Beranbaum
I'm still working on scratch baking with the help of some experts. I've recently purchased Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum as suggested by fellow CakeCentral.com members. Several people said it is worth it to own both her Cake Bible and Heavenly Cakes. My most recent scratch cakes are her "Buttermilk Country Cake" and "She Loves Me Cake" (featured in photos), both of which are variations of her "All-Occasion Downy Yellow Cake".
On the books' suggestion, I spun some sugar in my blender to make "super fine" sugar. I don't recall seeing super fine sugar at the grocery store, but next shopping trip I'll take a closer look. I can't really tell the difference in the final product, but I'm hoping experience will help me with that later.
Scratch baking is not easy. I have yet to really follow a recipe 100% correctly. With the "She Loves Me Cake" I poured all the milk into the liquids bowl, not reading that only 1/4 cup should have gone in. The rest was to go with the butter into the dry ingredients. I also over-baked it :( That's probably why my cake came out dry.
With the "Buttermilk" cake, I didn't follow the directions on my powdered cultured buttermilk container. If you mix the powder directly with water, it clumps up. You're supposed to add the powder to the dry ingredients and add the water to the wet. I tried to split this recipe into 2 6" round pans and that was wayyyy too much batter. It overflowed in the oven and made a big, burnt, smelly mess. The cake that I salvaged was moist but very delicate. It crumbled when sliced.
Please don't judge these cake recipes on my failures because I'm sure I messed them up! Instead, give me a virtual hug and know that, if you're also one who can't seem to read ahead, I'm right there with ya!
I am soon going to switch my title from novice baker to intermediate baker - I have been playing with scratch baking for about a year now. IT IS SO HARD! *Hugs* that you keep trying. I think it is so important to know *what* we did wrong and not blame the recipe each time. I hope you attempt these again - good luck!
ReplyDeleteWhen you say "scratch baking" do you mean you cream the butter etc and do not use packet mixes? Interesting to read this term, i have noticed it a few times in American blogs .
ReplyDeleteYes! It's pretty common in America to make cakes from mixes, and growing up I very rarely ate a "scratch" cake. Though savory cooking came easily to me, baking is a whole different skill set that I hadn't learned. Also, my parents are Filipino, and Asian cuisine isn't exactly known for pastries.
DeleteI like to bake from scratch as do my 2 daughters��. Always interesting to learn from around the world. :-)
ReplyDeleteits nice to share..i learned baking cake....
ReplyDeletethank you
Great blog I enjoyed readding
ReplyDelete