Bakin-n-Bacon

At Last, Success!

DK, whoever you are, you inspired me by your comment on the Bundt pan post to give the teacakes pan one more go around. I used my recipe for financiers, figuring the uber-rich batter (it contains both browned butter and almond meal) would help in the fight against sticking. I also took great pains to properly grease the flour the molds. I melted shortening and painstakingly brushed each of the cavities. Then I sifted cake flour lightly over the mold, inverted it, and tapped out the excess. So far so good. I filled the molds using a piping bag to avoid air pockets, and finally I rapped the pan gently but firmly on the counter to force any errant bubbles to the top.

I overfilled the molds, leaving "feet" on the bottom of each cake that are not obvious on the photo. I did not recall the financiers having that much lift! But I am so very pleased with the results that I want to make more cakes with this adorable mold.

For those with a hankerin' for a buttery, melt-in-your-mouth, nutty cake, here is the recipe:

Financiers

410g Beurre noisette (browned butter)
450g Egg whites
460g Powdered sugar
40g Invert syrup (see note)
300g Almond flour
150g Cake flour

Note: If you don't have invert syrup, use 510 grams of powdered sugar.

Brown butter and strain. Sift all dry ingredients together. Whisk in invert syrup, half of egg whites and hot browned butter. Add rest of egg whites. Scrape into large pastry bag and secure the end. Let rest for several hours or overnight in the fridge. Pipe into molds and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack.

Those who can't do....over do!

I made a banana cake last weekend and covered it with Cook's Illustrated's Foolproof Chocolate Frosting. I really like that frosting - it's chocolately, silky and surprisingly easy to make.

The title of this post stems from the fact that I cannot frost cakes with corners. I've read a few descriptions from pros on how to get perfect, neat, straight and level edges and corners, but I don't do it enough to get the hang of it. Instead, I throw on about 20 embellishments to cover the fact. Also, I was too lazy with this cake to even try to get the top and sides smooth, so all of the decorations are hiding not only my ineptitude but also my sloth. The squiggles on top of the cake are supposed to be Cornelli Lace, but I used too big of a tip and the icing was a wee bit soft. But at any rate, the cake was good, if a tad dry.

If you would like the recipe for the icing, send me an email!

Bundt Pans Part II: The Bad & The Ugly

Now on to the pans I don't like. The most disappointing was a recent purchase from Williams-Sonoma, the Fall Harvest Pan. I had recently sold our old home, and wanted to buy myself a little gift to celebrate having only one mortgage payment to make, so I trekked to Williams-Sonoma as part of a shopping excursion and grabbed this pan. Since I love fall, I thought that it would be a great addition to the collection.

Here is the promise of this pan:

Quite attractive, don't you think? The oak leaves, maple leaves and acorns just ooze fall charm. Well, until you bake a cake in it:

I only put on the drizzle to cover the shapeless lump of cake that plopped out of the mold. Even if you looked very closely, you could not make out any detail of the leaves - just vague shapes. I tried again with a different cake recipe and got the same result. I will try it one more time, but I'm not holding out any hope. If the last one turns out like this, it's into the Goodwill bag for this pan.

Another contender for worst pan would be the Star Pan:

Again, such promise and potential. And, in a few cases, the cake came out okay. But more frequently, many of the top bumps of the star would stick in the pan, leading to a string of quite unladylike curse words. I don't have any photos of this or other cake disasters, but next time I have a disaster I'll record it for posterity. I ended up giving this pan away since the sticking problem became worse with time. Perhaps if I started with a new pan I could love it once again.

The following pan I didn't like for aesthetic reasons, not for underperformance - the Rose pan:

I just found it too stylized - when baked, it looked nothing like a rose to me. Here is an example (not one that I baked, just found on the web):

It's just plain ugly. The mini-rose pans, on the other hand, are cuter. But that brings me to another problem - the miniature pans. Oh, the agony these pans have wrought! The first time I used this pan:

I had such high hopes. I made these for a bridal shower, and covered them with a poured fondant. They were not as cute as I had hoped, and worse yet, some of them had sticking problems. I have two of these pans, with different designs (they both have the bavaria shape, but the other pan has mini star and mini Christmas tree instead of fleur-de-lis and cathedral). As the pans age, the sticking problem worsens. I suppose this is due to residue buildup or abrasion of the surface, even though I am extremely careful with how I care for the pans. I just might have to dig these out and make some cakes just to see if they are as bad as I remember, because they have such potential.

Now in the too cute for words category, I present the teacakes pan:

So far, no luck with this baby. I just cannot get the little cakes out in one piece, and if I do, all of the detail sticks on the surface. Again, I'll give them one more try to see if I can make it work, but I have my doubts. I may try a couple of tricks, such as freezing the cakes in the pan to shrink them down. Some people must have luck with this thing because they are still selling them!

That's it for the bad and ugly. You may not agree with my choices, but I'm the queen here so naner-naner. There are many more bundt pans out there. Either I am noncommittal about them or I don't have enough experience to form an opinion on the other pans. If you have a shape that have a question about, let me know!

If you have any experience with some of the shapes, I'd like to hear that as well. I'm dying to know how the castle pan works. It looks like it would be quite a challenge to get those tall peaks out without a fight!