Turtle Cake #CakeSliceBakers

Warning: the pictures that follow may be distressing to cake bakers. Do not worry; no cake taste was harmed during the deconstruction, and all cake was consumed with great gusto.

Let's just get it out of the way:

As I was finishing the top layer, the cake started to split.  Eventually, the entire cake split.  I have never had this happen, so it was a bit of early morning excitement.  I wish I could blame it on the recipe, but this was entirely my fault for not following the directions exactly. The recipe says to level off the cake layers before you start assembling.  I decided to ignore that step as I've not had the best result when trying to level off cake before and have never had it matter.  Well, it mattered today!


Shortly after this picture was taken, part of the cake fell onto the table causing me to start shoveling it into a bowl.  Final result:


So even though the assembly of the cake ended in disaster, I have to say that this was some of the best cake I've ever eaten.  It starts with the same Devil's Food Cake recipe from last month which is my new go-to for chocolate cake.  You then chop some roasted pecans, make a caramel sauce and ganache and begin assembly.  One thing to note, the cake recipe calls for 1 cup of caramel and 1 cup of ganache.  The recipes in the book make 3/4 cup of caramel and 3 cups of ganache. So unless you want a lot of ganache left over, you'll want to make only 1/3 of the ganache recipe.  I did find that one complete recipe of the caramel was sufficient.

I have tried to make caramel several times, and it's always hit or miss if it works.  Sometimes it burns, sometimes it crystalized, sometimes it comes out fine, and I've never been able to figure out why.  This cookbook provided step-by-step instructions as well as a bonus page in the Baking School section that provided the whys and pictures of each steps.  This was THE BEST caramel I've ever made.  Plus, I now have a technique to follow each time a recipe calls for caramel.

After so much excitement and education, I decided the morning called for a spoonful of cake for breakfast.  Best decision I made all morning.



 



Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Zoë Bakes Cakes by Zoē François. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.





It is a new year and a new book - Zoë Bakes Cakes - and our choices for March 2022 were ~


Banana Bread with Swirls of Nutella

Anna's Almond-Brown Butter Cake

Turtle Cake

Comments

  1. MeredithMarch 20, 2022 at 8:35 AM

    It looks delicious! A messy cake is a worthy cake in my opinion!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. KarenMarch 20, 2022 at 10:22 AM

    Cake for breakfast cures everything! You are a good sport and I'm so happy to hear about the caramel. I do love that devil's food cake after making it last month.

    ReplyDelete
  3. All That's Left Are The CrumbsMarch 20, 2022 at 5:43 PM

    I absolutely love your resilience in the face of adversity, and in the end the cake all goes down the same way, right? The next time something like this happens to me the first thing I am going to think is what would Kim do, and just keep moving forward.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A Day in the Life on the FarmMarch 20, 2022 at 5:46 PM

    In the end...only the taste matters. I have had many cakes that have been turned into trifle and have never had a complaint LOL.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tart Cherry Almond Cake #CakeSliceBakers

Image
 The Tart Cherry Almond Cake starts with an easy almond-flavored cake batter that you then fold in tart cherries. Once it comes out of the oven and cools, it gets a soak in an almond simple syrup and then topped with a thick glaze and a sprinkle of slivered almonds.  The only problem I had with this recipe is that the cherries all sunk to the bottom. The recipe says you can use either fresh or frozen tart cherries. I had a couple of jars of tart cherries in my house, so I decided to use one of those. The note at the top suggests placing half the cherries on top of the batter if you're using frozen, which I did with my jarred cherries. But they all sunk anyway. With the cherries all clustered at the bottom, I had to work to get a proper taste of all the components. And while the iced cake was good, and the cake-encased cherries were good, the cherries with iced cake was perfection. If I were to make this cake again, I would cut the cherries into fourths, and I might even opt to coat
Read more

Chamomile Cake with Honey Creme Fraiche #cakeslicebakers

Image
For my May Cake Slice Bakers bake, I chose the Chamomile Cake with Honey Creme Fraiche.  I had my doubts about it when I chose it; it was chosen mostly for convenience and not out of excitement, but I was wrong.This cake was delicious!  The cake was light and flavorful. The icing was the perfect complement.  Everyone in my family enjoyed it. I used chamomile tea bags instead of dried chamomile as that's what I had on hand.  Creme Fraiche is not sold in our local store, and given the current pandemic conditions, I did not think I should go shopping about for it.  The internet had several suggestions, but one was familiar to me from other icings I've made and present in my refrigerator - plain, full fat Greek yogurt.  Add some honey, whip it up, and it was a great substitute. Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is The New Way To Cake  by Benjamina Ebuehi. We each choose
Read more

Crumb Cake #CakeSliceBakers

Image
 My March bake for the Cake Slice Bakers was a crumb cake.  While I've eaten plenty of packaged crumb cakes, I had never made one myself.  I can't imagine why it took me this long.  This recipe is easy to follow and produced a cake that was flavorful and not oversweet. Definitely a cake we'll make again and again. Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Little Everyday Cakes  by Candace Floyd. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes! Follow our Facebook , Instagram , and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in
Read more