Thursday, August 18, 2016

The cake wot I invented

Apple and Blackberry Ripple cake
In my head a beautifully risen and light sponge with fruity chunks of apple and delicate swirls of blackberry puree. In reality ...
a slightly purple sludgy sponge with fruity chunks of apple and occasional blobs of blackberry puree.

Tasted good but needs work:
a) too soggy so maybe need to cook it a little longer - not sure what makes a cake soggy as I reduced the number of eggs I would have used for a plain sponge;
b) next time will try swirling the puree in with a chopstick after I've put the mixture in the tin rather than when in the mixing bowl;
c) had to add cornflour to thicken the puree and maybe could have avoided that if I'd made it the night before and allowed it to cool properly;
d) needed more swirls to get the blackberry flavour through properly.

I don't expect even St. Delia gets things right first time.

For my own records this is what I did.
 Simmered 1lb of blackberries with 3 tablespoons sugar and 1 tablespoon water. (On reflection could omit water). When soft pushed through a sieve then reheated the puree and tried to boil it down a bit. In haste resorted to adding several teaspoons of cornflour to thicken.

Put 8oz marg and 3 eggs in the mixing bowl. 
Remember that I'm supposed to mix marg and sugar first so fish out eggs and replace with 8oz sugar.
Mix until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time and mix in between (with a little bit of flour). Add rest of 8oz sugar and 4 teaspoons baking powder. (Just wondering: did I put in 4? Could explain lack of rising if not.) Do short mix in mixer then fold in by hand along with 3 apples cut into small chunks. Tried to pour and swirl in puree simultaneously but didn't have enough hands, hence swirling became more like mixing. Put into lined roasting tin and swirled a bit more puree in. 

Cooked for about 20 minutes at 170.


Lots of puree left so will experiment again soon.


1 comment:

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

Looks delicious and sounds even better . I do like the idea of your attacking ( sorry , swirling ) it with chopsticks .