Let Them Make Cake

Well, everyone, we've made it this far...Cakes 1, the first of two cake units that we tackle, and let me say, this one's a doozy. We're making a ton, and it's super busy, which is slightly problematic in that we don't have time to complete everything...but here we go.

I'm not going to go in any particular order, since it's just been a hodgepodge, anyway. Plus, I don't have all the pictures...whoops! In general, though, this unit is teaching us not just to bake a cake, but to slice layers, frost, and decorate. It's a lot of new technique, and while some people love it, I think cake decorating comes harder to me, and I just wish I had more time to perfect my skills. Yes, yes, I'll stop whining.

The first cake we have is a chocolate genoise cake with ganache, chocolate glaze and candied rose petals. Genoise is the most basic, traditional French sponge cake. It's pretty dry, so it's almost always soaked in some sort of syrup or liqueur, in this case, rum. I really liked this cake. Plus, edible flowers are always cool!

We also made a regular genoise with raspberry jam filling and a plain butter cream. I thought this one was a little boring, but it went over well. I'm really glad to be making a real butter cream now, with eggs. I had always been scared of working with egg before, but now that I know how to cook the eggs properly, I have definitely conquered that fear.

The other cake we made that I have a picture for is pound cake. It's pretty basic and simple, but I liked that we made them into cupcakes. Perfect with some freshly whipped cream and berries.

The other two cakes we've made were the angel food and the dacquoise. I had never had dacquoise before. It has baked meringue discs layered with coffee butter cream. The butter cream was delicious, but I think the cake was just too sweet for me. The angel food cake was angel food cake. To paraphrase my friend, Kristie (shout out!), this must be what angels taste like...sugary and vapid.

Well, that's what we've completed so far. We are behind in this unit, so we still have a couple cakes that are almost completed. I imagine I'll have a glut of cakes on Saturday...perfect, since it's a lot harder to get rid of this stuff on the weekends.