It's my birthday week and I'll have cake if I want to. And I do!
I am not an expert cake baker, in fact I am not even an advanced beginner. As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I almost go out of my way to -not- learn the arts of fine baking. In the past the only birthday cakes I remember came from the grocery store. Most of my personal cake baking experience came from a Betty Crocker box and a couple of eggs.
I do have one moment of cake baking glory in my Montana past, I made a beautiful 3 layer "checkerboard" cake that tasted as good as it looked. Of course, the frosting alone was made with a pound of butter and a jar of marshmallow fluff... so clearly that wasn't going to cut it here.
Some friends and I tried a vegan cupcake from Whole Foods and we all agreed that it was a little dry. So I announced with confidence: "I can do better than this". After my success with the chocolate chocolate-chip cookies, no one doubted me. Of course, have I mentioned that I am not a professional? You'll see....
I found the recipe for a basic chocolate cake in Vegan Express, which I happened to have out from the library. So far so good, everything is getting mixed together - hard to mess that part up:
Fresh out of the oven and it looks great. I had sprayed the bottom and sides of the dish with non-stick spray and I had even coated it with sugar since I remember doing that with baked breads as a child. I was prepared to impress with preparation and even asked one of my friends to flip it out onto the plate. "Oh, it will come right out so be prepared for that" I assured him.
Well... not so much:
As you can see, half of it did come right out but half of it did not. I debated trying to get the other half out and tried to wiggle a spatula under it to free it from the pan with no luck. Luckily I was among friends, so I just frosted it as it was. The cake tasted great! The frosting has a little peanut butter in it, which I wasn't expecting to like, but it was delicious. Everyone loved the cake and it was gone that night.
If any of you have an ideas for how to get a cake to come out all in one piece next time, I am open to suggestions!
13 comments:
Happy birthday!
Mary McDougall highly recommended SiliconeZone for non-stick, easy release baking. I haven't shopped for it, but I see Target online has it listed.
Happy Birthday!!
It's not terribly healthy, I suppose, but I always grease the baking pan with some earth balance margarine and the sprinkle in some flour. Tap the pan to get the flour to coat everything, and then tap out the extra flour. I've never had a cake stick when I've done this! It can also help to put a greased sheet of parchment paper (cut to size) in the bottom of your greased baking pan.
You and I are obviously on the same wave length and the sprites are being cheeky and mischievous to the both of us. I had the same thing happen to me yesterday - I will blog my disaster later.
Happy birthday week! Is today your birthday or are you celebrating the whole week because you're just THAT cool? :)
Hey, as long as it tasted great, right? I think that sometimes cakes will stick for no logical reason, just to frustrate us. Evil cakes!! :)
oh that I had ANY IDEA.
Im off to attempt to make one this morning....for my daughter...shaped like FOOFA from Yo Gabba.
it's a teat run for the real thing as Im THAT BAD in the kitchen ;)
MizFit
Happy Birthday!
I'd stick a piece of baking parchment in the bottom of your dish (and around the sides if your dish isn't too rounded). I always line with paper and have never in my life bothered to grease a pan.
Glad the cake was still yum though!
Happy birthday! Your cake looks really good in pieces or whole. If you line your pan with parchment paper and spray it with oil your cake should come out fine. Enjoy yourself!
Happy Birthday!!!
GREASE AND FLOUR!
I think that cake looks delicious and decadent, perfect or not. I agree with the other posters who mentioned parchment paper. I always line the bottom of my cake pans with greased parchment paper, that way all I have to do is loosen the sides. You could also consider something like a springform pan. Because the sides of the pan come off it makes removal a piece of cake.
Happy birthday! The answer to your question about whether I am at liberty to reveal what I accidentally left out of Happy Herbivore's test pumpkin muffins after the cookbook comes out is yes. :)
Happy birthday!
I always grease (with margarine or oil) my baking pans and 'swirl' around a little flour. If you don't want to have someting white on a black/brown cake, you can use cocoa as well...
happy birthday, sounds like it was fun! cake looks great.
I have used both the grease, then flour method as well as the waxed paper method.
w/ waxed paper, you don't really need much grease on the pan. otherwise it can get super greasy gross depending on the batter. I tend to like the waxed paper method. in fact, if it's a huge cake, i have the waxed paper go up the sides of the pan too. I did a 9x13 inch cake that way this weekend and it stayed intact.
Happy Birthday!
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