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

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