Saturday, December 19, 2009

Cakes That Think They Are Pies


Lots of reasons to celebrate this week! Freddie came home from college yesterday and I made a traditional dinner for the last night of Chanukah. Freddie doesn't like chocolate desserts so I had to decide between a banana cake and an apple cake. When I forgot to pick up some bananas at Findlay Market last week, I knew it had to be the apple cake. The bananas have to be completely brown and mushy to make the banana cake and that takes at least a full week of advance planning. RHC has a gorgeous recipe for an Apple Upside Down cake and that's what I made.
This cake is gorgeous and is similar to the apple cake I made for Rosh Hashana (Martha Stewart) in that the apples are coated in a caramel sauce. The difference is that this cake is meticulously composed so that the apples make a gorgeous design on the top of the cake.
Here are the apple slices "arranged" in the bottom of the cake pan:

Batter is then "plopped" on the top of the apples (Rose's word, not mine). It is then baked right-side up. and unmolded right away.
Lift off the pan and it looks exactly like the photo in the book.
I would not recommend Rose's recipe for Bourban Whipped Cream unless you seriously like bourban. There is nothing subtle about this whipped cream and the next time I make this cake, I'll just go with plain whipped cream (made from real whipping cream, of course)!

Tonight, Scott and I are going to a holiday party at his brother's house and I wanted to bring a dessert that was not only delicious, but looked spectacular. I went with the Lemon Meringue Cake from RHC. I have had more than one disaster with lemon meringue pies -- the meringue shrinks when I put in in the oven to brown -- but this cake, though extremely time consuming and difficult, looked to be fool-proof with regard to the meringue. First of all, the meringue was an Italian meringue made with a sugar syrup that I boiled to the firm ball stage (248 degrees). Also, the recipe called for plenty of it, so I didn't have to skimp when I coated the cake. I only wish I could figure out how to brown the sides better (convect bake? blow torch?), but, other than that, I am quite pleased.


I'm still running. Just not today.

3 comments:

Randy Egge said...

Natalie,
If I ever need to know how to bake guess who I am coming to? You are the baking queen.

Randy

Patricia @ ButterYum said...

Hi Natalie - Happy Chanukah. Thanks for visiting my blog. Your apple cake really did turn out just like mine. Fantastic job!! Thanks also for the warning on the bourbon whipped cream. Vanilla whipped cream is more my speed ;).

Your lemon meringue cake looks fantastic - I can't wait to give that one a try. I can't wait to see more of your kitchen creations.

Take care,
:)
ButterYum

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