My Daisy Cake From Scratch
We were invited to a friend’s house for a 4th of July picnic and I decided to make a cake from scratch. Not only did I decide to make a cake from scratch, I was going to pour it into a fancy Williams - Sonoma cake pan and then glaze the top with sugar, just like the picture on the cardboard wrapper. I enlisted my children to help me; we sifted the flour and baking powder over wax paper, beat room temperature butter until is was creamy, added the sugar and beat some more. Then, I separated the flour mixture into three parts and added 4 eggs, one at a time, and 2 egg yokes into the bowl, interspacing the flour perfectly. My son beat the mix and my daughter helped by folding the batter into the middle; it looked perfect.
OK, so I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking, doesn’t this girl know how to flour a pan? Of course I floured that pan! I sprayed the whole thing with Pam, every stinkin’ little daisy and the whole row of dentil molding detail that sailed around the top edge of the pan. Then I wasted half a bag of flour trying to cover everything. I cooked it, the toothpick came out clean, and then I cooled it on the rack for 10 minutes, just as instructed. Ah, but you know what comes next with a cake pan like this, you must turn the whole thing upside down and watch it slide effortlessly from your heavily floured pan. You then get to walk around your house, cake held out in front of you, a proud smile glowing like a beacon in the night, your family, and then later, your friends will be astonished at your talents, and at that moment you will know that you’ve risen to the top of the baking ladder.
But that’s not what happened to me. I turned the pan over and nothing happened. Now, let me mention that the pan is still hot and hard to hold with oven mitts. So I attempt to tilt the pan up, (with my padded, flipper-type hands) and slide a knife around the outer edge, but it doesn’t budge. After a few more wiggles and some more work with the knife, my cake finally slides free, in several parts. You could say that the scene that followed was an excellent lesson for my children in what NOT to do when you’re frustrated. After my mini breakdown I remembered that I had a couple of packages of chocolate pudding and a pre-made gram cracker crust which turned itself into a lovely chocolate pudding pie that I brought to the picnic. I didn’t hide my lemon cake in shame though, I brought it to the party too, and everyone seemed to like it. My cake fiasco won’t cause me to retreat back to the safety of banana bread land, I’m up for venturing even further into the art of dessert making, but you can be sure I won’t try baking anything in this pan again.
OK, so I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking, doesn’t this girl know how to flour a pan? Of course I floured that pan! I sprayed the whole thing with Pam, every stinkin’ little daisy and the whole row of dentil molding detail that sailed around the top edge of the pan. Then I wasted half a bag of flour trying to cover everything. I cooked it, the toothpick came out clean, and then I cooled it on the rack for 10 minutes, just as instructed. Ah, but you know what comes next with a cake pan like this, you must turn the whole thing upside down and watch it slide effortlessly from your heavily floured pan. You then get to walk around your house, cake held out in front of you, a proud smile glowing like a beacon in the night, your family, and then later, your friends will be astonished at your talents, and at that moment you will know that you’ve risen to the top of the baking ladder.
But that’s not what happened to me. I turned the pan over and nothing happened. Now, let me mention that the pan is still hot and hard to hold with oven mitts. So I attempt to tilt the pan up, (with my padded, flipper-type hands) and slide a knife around the outer edge, but it doesn’t budge. After a few more wiggles and some more work with the knife, my cake finally slides free, in several parts. You could say that the scene that followed was an excellent lesson for my children in what NOT to do when you’re frustrated. After my mini breakdown I remembered that I had a couple of packages of chocolate pudding and a pre-made gram cracker crust which turned itself into a lovely chocolate pudding pie that I brought to the picnic. I didn’t hide my lemon cake in shame though, I brought it to the party too, and everyone seemed to like it. My cake fiasco won’t cause me to retreat back to the safety of banana bread land, I’m up for venturing even further into the art of dessert making, but you can be sure I won’t try baking anything in this pan again.
posted by Amanda at 2:31 PM
2 Comments:
I work in a kitchen and when we make cakes like you described we let them cool for a long time. We even put them in the walk in cooler. It has to be cool because the cake has to contract. When the cake contracts it is a lot easier to get out because it is a little smaller and is also a little firmer. Then we slam it on the counter a few times and it comes out nicely. Glade things turned out well. I am off to make brownies you know, just add water and eggs hahahaah.
I have been reading your blog for a few days now and would like to invite you to submit your RSS feed to Riotnews.com. I just started this site and adding your RSS feed is free right now. I hope to see you add your feed, I truly like the blog.
Thanks for the tips Greg! I tried the RSS feed but it didn't like my info, any tips?
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