Saturday, January 19, 2013

Madeira Cake- Vanilla Bean




Madeira Cake-
Madeira is a heavy dense pound cake of British origin. Evolving from the American pound cake, this cake is ideal for a strong base or carving.

Ingredients for one 7 in round or one 6 in square pan.
1 c butter softened
1 c sugar
3 large eggs
2 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
salt to taste, I use 3 or 4 shakes
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean



Grease and line pan with parchment paper, Set aside and preheat oven to 350.

Beat butter and sugar until creamy, gradually add eggs, blend well.
Sift flour, soda and salt and fold in. Add vanilla- see below for vanilla bean usage.
Pour into pan and bake about 1 to 1 1/4 hours.
This seems like a lot of time, to be honest I really kept an eye on mine beginning around the 50 minute mark. Just use a cake tester and remove when cake tests done. Try not to open the oven more than a time or two as this will effect your cake and baking time. If you have a window that is perfect for keeping an eye on it! If not test once around the 50-55 min and adjust.
Remove cake when done and let cool 20 minutes in pan then finish cooling on rack.




You can see the wonderful dense texture here.


                             Vanilla Beans


To use a vanilla bean, slice lengthwise down the bean- but not completely through.



Slide your knife down the middle scraping all the seeds-






mix into batter. Use 1/2 to 1 full bean per recipe. If your making any kind of sauce that would need to cook, throw the bean in while simmering and disguard  before glazing or filling.

 You can see up close how many tiny little seeds are inside.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

She Says TV Cake Making Video









Hey Everyone!
If you have a minute, click on this link to see the first of two cake making installments I filmed with Tracy Briggs of the Forum. In this video we made a peanut butter and jelly cake that looks more like a sandwich than a cake, and the above popcorn cupcakes.
Next Thursday we will talk about home made fondant and the center cake above.

Video Link


Second video HERE

Thursday, January 3, 2013

French Fry Cake







 My son wanted to make a cake for his girlfriend's birthday. We decided to make a French Fry cake which reads (Ermahgerd Furnch Fers) If you don't get that......it is ok! If you want to, search Ermahgerd online.




We went with 2 layers of chocolate cake and a chocolate fudge filling. Place a rim of buttercream icing around edge to keep fillings in and to help close the gap the layers make, this makes it easier to ice.
crumb layer

Use buttercream to make a crumb coat layer of icing, this is your first layer that does not need to look pretty! Place in fridge for an hour and then begin icing cake or use fondant at this time if you choose, and cover cake.

note how second layer adheres better to crumb coat

Let the decorating begin!



For the fries we used store bought pound cake. Half of the loaf was shaped into fry package by hollowing out an area to make it look like a McDonald's package. We covered this with icing and red fondant.
The other half was cut into fries using a waffle cut slicer. Hint work with frozen pound cake, this makes the shaping much easier.



Finish with icing and throw the fries around. Brenna and her cake! (it is bigger than she is!)


this is what happens when you eat too much cake!




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