Wednesday, October 17, 2007

WTSIM: Layer Cake (for Ultimate Cravings, no less!)

Ooh, another food blogging event to add to my repetoire! I've seen the different editions of "Waiter, there's something in my..." throughout the blogosphere since I started reading blogs, and was intrigued, but too nervous (or unable, in the past few cases, due to lack of ingredients and time) to take the plunge. Well, that's all over now, since this edition is being hosted by Andrew of SpittoonExtra and he was extra-nice, choosing layer cakes as the theme! But, since we had just celebrated my grandfather's birthday with both a box cake mix (for Teaghan) and an apple butter pumpkin pie (made by yours truly, and documented at the link), I couldn't afford to burden the family with yet another full-sized goody in the fridge (especially since I'm planning on enrolling in George Brown's Continuing Education Pastry Arts program soon, and because I can't eat the treats myself, I'll have to pawn them off on the poor family). Yes, pity them, folks!

I still wanted to take part, though, so the thoughts of a mini-cake jumped to mind. But how, what kind, and for whom? What kind was easy for me: I had been toying with the idea of a peanut butter cake for a while, and I wanted an unusual filling and topper for it. For whom was not that hard either, my dad was a willing volunteer (thanks again, old man!). Now for the how... I didn't have any miniature cake tins (or jumbo muffin pans, even, what kind of baker am I?), so I racked my brain for innovation inspiration. What came to me should have been the world's biggest duh moment ever: breads are baked in coffee cans, why can't a cake be done the same way? No (small) coffee cans were available to lend a hand, but I did score a 28oz can that had been used for diced tomatoes. I thoroughly cleaned out the can, de-labelled it and wrapped it in foil, and voila - mini cake tin!

The result of my kitchen playtime was a light peanut butter sponge cake that was the perfect foil for a raspberry and chocolate filling that I made in the microwave. I used my fellow Canadian Bernard Callebaut’s bittersweet couverture chocolate as that’s all I had on hand, and I like to support my Canadian companies when I can (including Kraft as the source for the peanut butter). Any good chocolate would work nicely, and I plan to do a rendition with Nutella as well. All I can say is make sure to let the melted chocolate / jam mixture cool adequately before spreading it, since it is fluid at the best of times. It looks pretty with the rewarmed filling drizzled on top, though! It's up to you, really, take it and play! My dad eagerly took it this afternoon, can't wait to hear what he thinks of it! This really is the summation of every craving I was having at the time yesterday, so if it seems a bit odd, well, you know me!

Ultimate Cravings Mini – Cake
Serves 2
1 cup flour
¼ cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 ½ tbsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ cup buttermilk
1 tbsp Godiva chocolate liqueur
2 tbsp vanilla syrup
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup raspberry jam
3 tbsp melted semisweet chocolate or Nutella
  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a clean and de-labelled 28oz can.
  2. Mix together flours, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
  3. Separately blend buttermilk, liqueur and vanilla syrup.
  4. Add to the dry mixture.
  5. Blend in peanut butter.
  6. Pour into prepared can.
  7. Bake 35 minutes, let cool completely.
  8. In a small bowl mix together jam and chocolate until well blended. Chill to firm slightly.
  9. Slice cake into three layers.
  10. With the back of a spoon, spread chocolate / raspberry filling between each layer.
  11. Spoon remaining filling over top of cake. Chill until ready to serve, or serve immediately.

2 comments :

  1. inventive and oh, so delicious looking!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I worked for a lady once who used to bake mini-cakes in soup cans and give them as Christmas gifts.

    ReplyDelete

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