Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 43: Woody's Lemon Luxury Layer Cake
This cake i realised is very rich and extremely high in cholesterol. So many egg yolks + eggs!! In the batter as well as in the buttercream & lemon curd! Making the lemon curd & buttercream is extremely tedious!! I spent like the whole Sunday baking this cake from 3pm till 10pm! And honestly i didn't really like the buttercream cos it's just way too soft, unless i am doing it wrong..but seriously..it's again one of those not good for hot & humid weather buttercream. I did turn on air-conditioning just to frost the cake but it didn't really help much cos i think i turned it on only just when i was about to frost the cake. I should have turned it on earlier so the room would have been colder. And one other thing, i cut my little finger while chopping up the white chocolate...thank goodness i was using my ceramic knife otherwise i think would have been a deeper cut...that's for being careless!
And besides cutting up my finger, i made another mistake.....i forgot to add sugar in my cake batter and only realised it after i tasted the batter and it's not sweet! I turned around saw the bowl of sugar at the side table! Arggh..i forgot to add it in with the flour..:P!! I didn't want to waste the 6 egg yolks, so i just add the sugar into the batter and turned on my mixer to full blast for 5 mins! The cake turned out ok, but i think it's a bit too 'heavy' in texture because of my last min addition of sugar, i'm no physicist or chemist but i'm sure it has got to do with some science thing.. See my cake in the pan..quite ugly looking..all the bubbles because i over-beat the batter (no choice when i forgot to add sugar till last min) lol!
Can you see from my photos below that i got really lazy and tired towards the end that i didn't even bother to trim the crust top and sides of my cake? My cake looks like egg/ham sandwich more than a cake! LOL! The brown crust looks like ham, the lemon curd like egg benedict, the buttercream like mayonnaise/cheese..hahahaha..i find it quite amusing! LOL! When my daughter saw my cake, she exclaimed "hey mom, why is it you've got ham sandwiched in your cake!" and we both burst out laughing!
We couldn't wait for the cake to be completely cold to try it. Hence you see the lemon curd oozing out and also the buttercream pretty soft. Look at the photo above, doesn't it looks like egg, cheese & ham sandwich? hahahahaha
Verdict: I don't like this cake. I tried to like it but i don't. My cake maybe 'heavier' than it should be, but don't think it changes the overall taste of the cake. I find the white chocolate buttercream + lemon curd + white chocolate cake way too much for my tastebuds...rather overwhelming. And also..this time i find the cake too sweet (cos of white chocolate...and sour too) for my liking! I adore Rose's Lemon Poppyseed Cake though, so it is not lemon that i don't like, but the combination of both the sour lemon & sweet white chocolate. I like the cake on it's own, i like the lemon curd on it's own and i also like the buttercream on its own but somehow when they are all combined together, i don't quite like it anymore! oO.
PS: the next morning - the buttercream on cake finally hardened! Yay!
My after-thought: for amount of effort & time put into this cake (or rather the buttercream), i doubt i wanna bake this again...too tiring...worse than decorating a cake imo. But i do like the cake on its own..maybe just paired with lemon Italian meringue buttercream when i bake it again.
Please do check out the others HCB bakers listed on my sidebar - I'm sure their cake will turn out looking more like cake than a sandwich! LOL!
14 comments:
i couldn't agree more with you .. this was tedious ..
if you forgot the sugar, I forgot the white chocolate AFTER the batter went into the pans. *shakes head*
but a lot of people actually liked it .. i just love the smell though.
hey, my cakes come up looking bubbly too, I guess I over beat the cake when I forgot the white chocolate too .. hahahah
Hi Azrina! LOL! At least your cake looks more like cake than sandwich.
Mmmm I looove lemon cakes with sugary icing. I can almost taste this by looking at it.
Hmm, I'm not sure I would like this either, although I also would like all of those things separately!
Faithy - it's probably all those white chocolate that makes you don't like this cake. It does make it too heavy. I wrote on my blog that I like the cake, but it is actually hard to finish one piece because it's really rich.
I loved this cake, but everybody has their own taste. My buttercream wasn't too soft at all--I think your weather and humidity must make a huge difference in baking. Good for you for plugging away when it's HOT!
@Sarah: You'll love this cake if you like very sweet and sour. :)
@Tracy: It's a bit overwhelming for me and it's so rich, you can't eat a lot at one go.
@Jenn: You are so right! The cake is very rich like you said and it's hard for me to go on after 3 spoonfuls without me feeling sick of it..maybe that's the reason why i don't really like..
@Marie: Yup, our weather here is no good to frost cake..unless i turn on the aircon full blast when i frost the next time...in the living room cos that's where the aircon is.. i have yet to install aircon in my kitchen. :S
Faithy, for frosting it, does it help to freeze/chill the cake?
Hi Jenn! Yes, chilling the cake works better & crumb coat it, but the only thing i still have to turn on the aircon as the moment i take it out from the fridge, condensation on the cake is very bad if i don't.
My gosh I can't imagine baking this cake in the heat and humidity you describe. It's cold where I am and the scent of the white chocolate warmed the kitchen.
@Vicki: Yup it's hot and humid here. I think we have high humidity levels here probably ave 80%? just say that you will perspire & feel sticky if you walk out on the streets..lol!
I had the same problem. This buttercream was so soft, I had to keep chilling it to get it to stop running on the cake. I have had the same problem with other buttercreams in this book. Your cake looks really yummy. Makes my mouth water.
You forgot the sugar, Azrina & I both forgot the white chocolate -- was there a "forgetfulness" virus going around?
Yes, this was very rich. I loved the lemon flavors, though!
ooooh....I love the look of all those cream. I love anything lemony....just so refreshing. Forget about the high cholesterol. It's ok to indulge every now and then :)
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