Pine Nut Weekend Cake #CakeSliceBakers
This month I decided to make the Pine Nut Weekend Cake. It uses a technique I had not used before. Instead of starting with creamed butter and sugar or whipped egg white, the recipe has you whip heavy cream until "it holds its shape." Traditional cake ingredients are added until a thick batter is produced. You then layer the batter with pine nuts in two loaf pans and bake for about an hour. The recipe is easy to halve if you only want one loaf.
I didn't think to take a picture before I put the cakes in the oven, but I had my loaf pans about 3/4 full with pine nuts sprinkled evenly all the way to the edges of the loaf.. About halfway through the bake time, I started to smell burnt cake. I quickly opened the oven door to discover that my cakes were overflowing the pans. I put a cookie sheet on the shelf below and scrapped as much batter as possible from the sides of the pans before closing the oven back up to let everything finish baking.
The picture below are the loafs when I first took them out of the oven. As you can see, the pine nuts moved towards the middle, and in the case of the loaf on the right, largely sunk into the batter. I don't know if this is because of the over-filling of the pans or if it's just something that happens.
Once cooler, I was able to get one loaf safely out of it's pan, but the other broke a bit across the bottom.
The recipe has make a brushing syrup out of Kirsch and sugar and then brush on top right when the cakes come out of the oven. Our local liquor store does not carry Kirsch, so I hit the internet for some substitution recommendations and found cherry vodka listed - convenient as I had a partial bottle in my cupboard left over from an early cake.
I'm not sure the syrup added much to the cake. As you can see in the picture below, even though I brushed across the whole top, it seemed to only really pernitrate in the middle. And when we tasted the cake, no one noticed any additional flavor.
The cake was moist, and we all enjoyed the taste and crunch of the pine nuts. The author says that it's frequently served with whipped cream and cherries. We ate it plain and found the flavor to be good. It would also serve as a good platform for toppings if you were looking for something a little fancier. It did hold up well over time. I had a piece for breakfast two mornings later, and it was still moist and tender, and the flavor had intensified. I have not tried it toasted as Aleksandra recommends, but I can see how it would make terrific breakfast toast.
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Rich Vanilla Génoise
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Pine Nut Weekend Cake
I do love pine nuts....I have also learned that this book often calls for loaf pans when a larger pan is needed. Maybe loaf pans are larger in France?
ReplyDeleteThat looks so good! One thing I miss about this book is photos. I really like to see what it's supposed to look like before I start making it!
ReplyDeleteI've had that same thing happen where the cake overflowed, I think with one of the author's cakes. I agree with Susan about the photos even though the cakes are typically very good.
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