First, Mise en Place

As I was getting the ingredients ready, I realized that my spring form pan is only about 2″ high. I dug through my cupboard to see if I had anything else suitable, but came up empty-handed. The recipe for the chiffon is the same as the one used for the bostini, so I considered making this as cupcakes, but decided against it. Then it occurred to me — it’s also the same recipe as is done in a tube pan in The Cake Bible. So, I decided to go for that option.

Ready for the oven

The cake rose up quite a bit above the rim, but I had visions of disaster in my head from Marie’s reminder about her previous chocolate tweed angel food cake, so I decided to play it safe. I let the cake cool in the pan until it was almost level with the centre tube, then flipped it over onto an elevated rack. The centre tube did its job and kept the rest of the cake from getting smooshed.

Baked!

The cake’s a little dry by itself, but add the orange marmalade sweetened whipped cream, and you have a real winner. I’m going to take the rest of the cake in to work tomorrow. Hopefully the cream holds up reasonably well until it gets eaten.

Edited to add: OK, I just couldn’t resist going and grabbing a quick picture of the completed cake that I forgot to take earlier. Look at how tall it is and how nice the crumb looks!

Cake Crumb

Sevilles, from Sacramento

When I made the cake for my friend, I used a combination of a bunch of different types of oranges, hoping the variety would make up for the lack of whatever it was that made Sevilles unique. Now I know better. There’s really nothing like these tart little guys.

For this cake, you start by heating up the eggs & sugar in a double boiler, then beating the snot out of them.

Starting to lighten in colour

The mixture turns beautifully light and fluffy within a few short minutes.

So light and fluffy!

Gently fold in your flour, and bake. I doubled the cake and tripled the curd when I made it last fall, so I could have three layers of curd rather than just one.

Beautifully risen, flat, level cakes

Last week, I also ended up doubling the cake… but not for quite such a well thought out reason. The first batch of cake I made came out so short that there was no way I was going to be able to split it in two! So, I baked a second one. This one, I let heat a bit longer, and I also beat it a bit longer than the previous one. The second one came out a whole lot better, but nowhere nearly as nice as the one I’d done previously. I really don’t know what happened. Beginner’s luck, the first time?

Denser cake on the right

Denser cake in the back

I ended up using both cakes instead of attempting to torte either of them. I don’t think anyone noticed other than me (and maybe hubby). I did sort of run out of ganache, but I think that was probably a good thing. The chocolate just didn’t do anything for me on this one, so the super thin layer was kind of nice. Making the ganache and the curd wasn’t too complicated, and I actually really enjoy the time spent alone at the stove waiting for the curd to “pool thickly”. I followed Rose’s recommendation and put the whole cake together on Saturday, then resisted the temptation to cut into it until Sunday. Light and moist!

Finished Cake February

For the one I made for my friend last fall, I didn’t place the oranges on until I got to their house for the party, so there are no pictures of that.

Finished Cake November

I didn’t taste much of the cake I made for my friend, but I remember thinking at the time that it wasn’t quite what I expected when I read Rose’s description comparing it to an orange sour ball candy. Of course, that’s because I didn’t have the sevilles at the time, and I had just used concentrated juice from various sweet oranges. With the sevilles, this really does taste like an orange candy. I’d really like to try it with a really rich vanilla buttercream, because I think it would taste something like a creamsicle, which I absolutely love. I’ll have to keep my eye out for Sevilles, now that this is supposed to be the season.

Mmmm!

As always, the cake disappeared quickly at work. Programmers are like vultures, when it comes to free food. This past weekend I made up a bunch of cupcakes to use up an accumulation of frostings in my freezer, and they were gone within 20 minutes today. Vultures, I tell you! Our buildmaster said as he was wandering away, cupcake in hand, “you should put rat poison in these one of these days”. I keep having people ask when I’m going to open a bakery, and my answer’s always the same: “As soon as I can afford to.”

That reminds me, I’ve been meaning to post my response to the thread “Why real baking?” that I noticed on the forums at Rose’s website. My mother taught me and my sister fractions through baking, at a very young age. She had a degree in home ec, and was a math teacher for a time before I came along. It’s always been a dream of mine to bake for a living. I think my mother tried her hardest to squash that dream, along with the dream of being a hairdresser (not sure what I was thinking there), by making me do all of the baking in the house, as well as having to cut her hair regularly. In grade 7 (age 12), I did a science fair project on honey versus sugar as sweeteners in cookies. My next year’s project was on different leavening agents. For a while there, I figured I was going to become a food scientist. (Un?)fortunately, I took a computer programming course in high school and got hooked on that instead. I think my mother was quite relieved. My Dad’s a civil engineering professor, and my sister’s ‘known’ she was going to be a “CivE” since she was about 4, so Mom had big hopes for me, too. She did manage to rid me of my ridiculous career choice of hairdresser, but I still harbour a not-so-secret desire to have a bakery someday. Maybe a bakery/tea shop.