This April is a busy one. Yesterday was Caleb's birthday (don't get me started) and his birthday party is on Friday. Saturday morning is Andi's baby shower. For some reason, probably early-onset senility, I wanted to bake both cakes. I have never really made fancy from-scratch birthday cakes before. My mom is SO good at it, I can usually talk her into doing it. Alas, my mom is out of the country so I am on my own. But I love a challenge (in theory) so off I went.
On Tuesday I bake two layers for Caleb's chocolate cake using this recipe from AllRecipes.com. I did change it a little, though. I used oil instead of shortening as some other reviewers suggested (which is one of the things I love about AllRecipes.com), and cake flour instead of all purpose. (I have a collection of four or five types of flour right now, thanks to my baking adventures.) The other big change I made was baking it in a round cake pan instead of the 9x13 baking dish. I'm not sure what it is about 9x13's. They don't feel very party-ish to me. I use my 9x13 for all kinds of stuff. Just not birthday cakes.
So after a little research, I decided to bake in a 9" round, 3" high round cake pan that my mom conveniently owns. I also read that wrapping a strip of wet (not dripping) towel around the cake and pinning it in place will allow the sides of the cake to rise better. The end result is that the cake is flatter (not domed) across the top.
Success! The cake came out almost perfectly flat across the top, plus nice and tall. This means I"ll have to cut very little off the top to stack the layers. Today I'll be icing the cake. Wish me luck!
For Andi's cake, I am using Nigella Lawson's "My Mother's Madeira Cake" recipe. Madeira cake is a British thing, so finding a recipe with American cooking measurements was the hard part. I first became aware of Madeira cake when my mom (of course) baked a sample cake for my friend Sara's wedding. She had a different recipe which called for milk instead of lemon juice, but she did add lemon zest.
I just happen to know that Andi loves lemon stuff, especially when she's pregnant, (like me!) so I thought this would be great. It's moist and slighly more pound-cake-ish than store-made cakes which are fluffier and drier. This is what makes it a good cake to decorate because it won't split under the weight of decorations. Plus its delicious. :)
I also had to adapt this to use the same pan that I had for Caleb's cake, because the original recipe is for a loaf pan (apparently in England they like to have this cake with tea?). It's in the oven right now... In about an hour I'll find out if the cake came out well!
I hope they both turn out great, so I can post pictures for you to ooh and aah about. :)
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