Friday, July 5, 2013

Recipe #35: Cornmeal Rosemary Cake with Lemon Glaze

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I was very excited to make this recipe simply because it's cake and I love me some cake. There are fun ingredients in this like mascarpone, rosemary, and lemon zest. I followed the instructions carefully and slid the cake in the oven, set the time for 40 minutes and checked out the result. It appeared to be fully baked but when sticking the toothpick in there was still some batter clinging so I set the time for 5 minute increments until done. I let it rest and then inverted the cake twice.

Then, as instructed, I took a wooden skewer and poked a few dozen holes in the cake to allow for the lemon syrup to be evenly distributed. I noticed that I had been brushing the cake quite a bit with the syrup and yet there was still so much left and the middle of the cake was starting to sink. I focused on getting the syrup more on the outside edge of the cake and decided I could not possibly use up all of the syrup. I also checked the syrup recipe again just to make sure I had done things correctly and all looked good.

I moved onto the lemon fondant and started with blanching the rosemary leaves. Then I completed the rest of the recipe and poured the fondant over the top of the cake. It was very challenging for me to get the fondant to not pool in the middle of the cake since it was sunken in. I held the plate up that the cake was on and tilted it side to side in hopes the fondant might run over the sides of the cake a bit more but it wasn't working, the fondant was thickening up. I let the fondant dry and then cut into the cake.

The result: the outer edges of the cake were fine but the middle of the cake was pretty much mush and inedible. I also felt the rosemary that was in the fondant was not blanched enough. The flavors of the cake and the fondant together sure took my tastebuds for a wild ride - the lemon being sour and paired with the cornmeal rosemary cake was interesting. It wasn't my favorite recipe thus far but that said I do need to make it again so I can truly experience what it's meant to taste like.

For full recipe see page 291 in the Dahlia Bakery cookbook.

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