April 15, 2008

Report on making The Cake I Want to Marry.

Hmm.




In my first attempt at making this cake love me back, the following faux pas were encountered:

1. 9-inch cake pan? I don’t think so. The batter totally filled it. I went ahead anyway, and of course a giant muffin was created that spilled over the top of the pan and needed to be baked an extra half an hour.

2.
Natalia says, “With a brush wet the cake” with the coconut milk/condensed milk/rum mixture. That's it! No more detail than that! Natalia! Are you trying to drive me insane? Keep me away from my beloved Bienmasabe? Ai! What she doesn’t say is how long that brushing is going to take. You’ve got about two cups of liquid. I say it will take all day, at least. Maybe two. Unless you can stand there for several hours and do nothing else. Like that French rum cake that you have to brush the rum on day after day; let it soak in slowly. Cause if you do what I did -- just pour the liquid over the cake and then stick in the refrigerator – you’ll end up with a cake sitting in a puddle of very, very sweet liquid. The whole cake ends up to be quite cloyingly sweet this way, and too wet.

I was able to (more or less) solve this the next day, but too late for the party, by baking it again! I put it back in the oven for at least another half an hour. The liquid went into the cake (or the air) and the lovely, complex flavors of the Bienmasabe emerged.

Here’s what I’m going to do next time:

1. Use two 9-inch cake pans.
2. Leave time to slowly brush the cake with the liquid.
3. Beg Natalia to allow me watch her make this cake!

I’ll let you know.

2 comments:

Natalia said...

Ohhhh Sure we can make the cake toguether, pick a day!

Natalia

Margaret Howard said...

Ok! Most fabulous! What's better for you, weekends or week nights? I've got noonish on May 4, and just about any evening during the week. :-)