Hey folks! Would love your help and advice. Here's the deal, I would love some recipe and technique suggestions:
Cake itself goal: delicious lemon cake with lemon curd filling and cream cheese frosting. Thinking half sheets perhaps but pan choice and volume calculations can be done. I'm more concerned about the right recipe. Decoration (beyond a nice coating) not important, I can make a little round for cutting and we'll cover it with pretty flower First...
Logistics: ~110/120 people. Cooking at the caterer's kitchen Thursday morning, can store cake in pastry cupboard (~50 degrees). Serving cake Saturday evening. Not sure whether I'll have a chance to frost it day of.
I've made a whole variety of recipes so far, sponge, chiffon, white cake with zest and extract, olive oil... Haven't been thrilled yet. If I can't work out a good lemon cake I'm going to revert to our second choice- carrot cake for which I have a good recipe and feel is more forgiving.
I'm attaching pictures of the latest recipe I used which had great flavor but ended up with a bit of a powdery/dusty texture making it a pain to frost and needing more frosting and curd. I increased it by a third from 3 8inch rounds to fit into one half sheet. Also attached is a cross section of this latest cake and I'm curious if you all have suggestions for ways I could change things in terms of the crumb being almost powdery.
Baking notes on this last cake included 1. that my not-great oven ran hot almost all the way through cooking 360-375 and because I was concerned about a soggy center, i let it sit in the warm oven for a longer time. 2. it calls for firm but not stiff peaked egg whites to be folded in and I think error'd on the softer side. 3 I use using trader Joe's organic granulated sugar which is a much bigger crystal and never fully dissappeared while creaming it with the butter (6-7min in the stand mixer).
Love your thoughts and suggestions!
I'm not a scratch baker ...but..... here's a recipe that might help you: http://www.cakecentral.com/recipe/7445/the-original-wasc-cake-recipe
If makeing a lemon cake......add the zest and juice of 2 lemons to the recipe when using a lemon cake mix.
I'm a scratch baker and love and use the Bake by Flavor often, although I haven't made the lemon cake that you did. I don't have a lemon cake recipe to share because I've not made one.
However, I am wondering if the texture of the "powdery" crumb might have had something to do not only with the things you described (oven temp, etc.), but also might have something to do with increasing the recipe by a third.
Just a thought. You might want to try making the recipe as it's written and see if the crumb is different. If the crumb is more to your liking, then it most likely has something to do with something else (i.e., ingredient measurement, baking temp, etc.).
Sorry if I'm not much help here. But I wish you the best with your upcoming wedding and wedding cake! (((Hugs)))
extra fine granulated sugar makes the best type of layer cake like this-- the large grains definitely made a difference in the other direction -- at least use regular granulated but extra fine which is not confectioner's sugar makes a good difference --
why did you change the sugar --
what kind of flour did you use --
you could add an egg yolk or two without any problem and this will make for a nicer cake -- if the recipe asks for 5 egg whites -- toss in one or two yolks with the creamed sugar/butter --
a tip -- rub your lemon zest with sugar to release the oils -- is that what it told you on page 55?
hey are you making lemon curd? you can make it in the microwave! easy peasy -- king arthur flour has a good recipe -- its google-able "microwave lemon curd"
y'know you gottaa keep your cake at 40 degrees not 50 --
idk your picture looks pretty good to my diet ridden god forsaken* soul -- made my mouth water
*just being dramatic -- sugar is not my bff and yet i'm an addict
http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/lemon-yoghurt-cake-L3208.html
Super easy cake which tastes great and freezes beautifully so you can bake it in advance if you wanted. Not a 'dense' cake but certainly not a sponge cake texture either.
Thanks everyone!
Kakeladi thank you for this recipe, it's widely referenced here so I'm definitely going to have to give it a try. I'll use lemon extract and make some lemon sugar a day before and sub for regular sugar.
TC123- agreed, I tried to be pretty precise about my scaling up and will attach my notes. The recipe gives most things by weight so I was pretty careful there, but surely struggled with the 1/3th tsps for my baking powder and salt. I guess I need to do a weight conversion for those and use my scale.
Does anything specifically in the recipe strike you as an ingredient that should not be scaled linearly?
K8Memphis, Awesome may we all have mercy on your soul :) Gonna toss a yolk or two in on my second try. What do you think about substituting a portion of butter with shortening also?
Just got some bakers refined sugar (was using trader joes organic sugar which is wonderful in flavor but the granules are too large).
Thanks for the temperature tip. Would you frost it first?
bubs1stbirthday! that recipe sounds great as well
devincake -- you're so sweet -- thank you --
but oh yeah let's talk about the butter and the refrigerator -- just to add to your list of complications
it has been my observation that when you refrigerate a cake made with butter you will get the comment that the cake is 'dry' even when it's brought back to room temperature -- the reason is the butter does not relax without adding a little heat --
the cake even freshly baked and fridged, brought to room temp will scratch down the back of your throat a bit so peeps say "it's dry" but it's really just firm butter -- microwave for 3-5 seconds and it's restored to its loveliest texture once again --
so your cream cheese icing and lemon curd need to be kept cold at 40 degrees -- your cake made with butter in the batter needs to stay unrefrigerated for best results so-o...
that's why i used this formula for my white wedding cakes:
which btw need to be workhorses -- must stay fresh for days go in & out the freezer & fridge-- must slice and serve perfectly and not crumble -- not crust over after getting served and waiting on the cake plate while peeps dance & party then go for a bite of cake --
i use:
- eighteen ounces of duncan hines white cake (which did not have preservatives probably still doesn't)
- one cup of self rising flour
- one cup sugar
- four egg whites and one or two yolks
- shot of vanilla
- a third cup of oil
- one and a third cup of water
i erred on the side of using the best tools for the job rather than cater to whims -- wedding cake is a whim-free whole different animal --
but i like baking whims just not for wedding cake -- it's too serious too big of a brick hard deadline to avoid crashing into kwim -- i played it safe not sorry --
my other observation is that i would be freaking out if i was in your shoes -- not having my recipe down pat and only one month to go --
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