Tuesday, September 16, 2008

I Really Really Hate Baking

I attempted to make Lemon Glazed Cake on Sunday...

Creamed butter + sugar, then added eggs

mixing dry and wet ingredients

In the oven. In the meantime, time to make the glaze...

and of course...

It was gross and inedible. Honestly, I'm not sure where I'm going wrong. I followed the recipe, measured my ingredients, but it still tasted like raw flour. Any ideas?

I think this makes it 0 for 2.

5 comments:

justgen said...

I'm not an expert but here are some tips so that anything I put in the oven doesn't come out like the bottom of my shoe.

Improper measuring of dry ingredients is one of the most common mistakes in baking. A couple of things to avoid:
Don't dip a measuring cup into a bag or container of flour; this packs the flour in the cup and adds more flour to the recipe, resulting in dry and dense cakes.
Resist tapping the cup on the counter — the flour settles and you will have more than needed.
Unlike cooking, in baking ingred have to be accurate, unfortunately here in the US most recipes call for cups rather than ounces(volume v weight). That would be more accurate. Anyhoo...

Temp is impt:most of your ingredients have to be at room temp for cakes(butter, eggs-this is opposite for pies & tarts) Your oven temp too since everyone's has diff hot spots so center is your best bet. Get to know your oven.
Don't open door before time, except about 10 min before time is up, check if cake pulling out of sides of pan and toothpick in center comes clean. Then your done! Honestly though I find that I usually have to cut the time 10-15 minutes shorter than the recipe calls for. Good luck next time...don't give up.

Anonymous said...

Don't ask me, you know better. But I did accomplish a pretty dern good Limoncello Cheesecake this weekend. The key to my success? No flour!

http://www.opensourcefood.com/people/kimdec/recipes/limoncello-cheesecake-squares

I have concluded:
Any baked food containing flour will result in utter failure and/or taste like chalk.

So I steer clear of flour, and all seems right with the world. And I didn't even blame my oven this time.

IamSusie said...

I just stir the flour to loosen it before baking and level off the measure with a large tongue depressor I keep in my flour tin. It's pretty easy to end up with way too much flour in a recipe.

'Cuz I Felt Like It! said...

I have the BEST EVER lemon glaze cake recipe that my Grandmother gave me. It's a cheater recipe though....you use a box cake and add to it. Everytime I make it for an event I know to take photocopies of the recipe.

So, if you ever find yourself hankerin' a lemon glazed cake again, I got one!

k. casey said...

The best, best (also stupidly easy) recipe for a lemon-glazed cake is from Maida Heatter's New Book of Great Desserts. The recipe is on page 115 titled "Lemon Buttermilk Cake #2" and is even better than "The Best Damn Lemon Cake" on page 113. You can screw this up (undercook, drop, add baking powder instead of baking soda) and it still tastes amazing.

Get this from the library and consider telling them you lost the book, it's that good! I'm still looking for her New Book of Great Chocolate Desserts so I can make my favorite birthday cake. Hot water in a chocolate cake, who knew?