Friday, May 26, 2006

Illustration Friday - Cake

Layer Cake

This is a layer cake that is growing at the Camel Exchange - please feel free to add a layer. Layers so far from JohnnyNorms and Caroline (that's me!).
Rules such as they are can be found here.



Illustration Friday - Cake

Mixed Media - pineapple upside-down cake (see below for recipe), candles and photo then played with in Painter IX

(And just in case you don't get the joke this really is mixed media, as in mixing a cake... )

It was Jim's birthday during the week so he took today off to make an even longer weekend and of course we baked the cake today too. How convenient!

The recipe we used was a varaition of one featured in the April 2006 issue of BBC Good Food and comes from Gregg Wallace's "Veg, the greengrocer's cookbook".

For the base

1 pineapple (there are lots in the shops at the moment)
3 oz dark muscado sugar
3 oz butter
1.5 oz flaked almonds (as much as we had to hand - the recipe called for 3 oz)
some pecans (to augment the almonds - not used in the original recipe)
8 maraschino cherries (the recipe called for 4oz natural glace ones)

For the batter

9 oz butter
9 oz light muscavado sugar
4 eggs
8 oz plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 oz ground almonds
2 tbsp rum (or pineapple juice)

Go out and buy 22cm / 8 in square tin. Wash it.

Oven: 190 C / 170 C (fan) / Gas 5 / 375 F

Peel pineapple. Slice. Discuss how thick the slices ought to be. The recipe says finger-thick... but what sort of specification is that? We found that 4 slices were enough but the picture showed 9... they must have used a much smaller pineapple. Remember to core the slices. It says reseve any juice... well if you used canned that's probably a good suggestion.

Cream butter and sugar. This starts off with you congratulating yourself for having left the butter out to get soft. But then you get sugar and butter over so many utensils that the congratulations stop and you have to clean up a bit before you go on and smooth this mix all over the inside of the 22cm square tin.

Scatter the almonds around getting some on the sides and the bottom of the tin. Place the slices of pineapple neatly in the base. Fill the centres of the pineapple with as many cherries as you can (that was Jim's variation). Add pecans in all the gaps. (Well worth doing as they really were a yummy addition).

Then the best bit of the recipe is where it says "Tip all the batter ingredients into a food processor and blitz until smooth". It forgot to tell me I really ought to have put an apron on first... and that Jim who always remembers his apron will therefore take over this thus leaving me to tidy up...

Pour the batter over the pineapple slices etc.

Bake. It said 50 mins - 1 hour but was cooked after 47 min. We could smell that it was ready. It says you can tell its ready when its puffed up and golden.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for a bit. It says so that the cake can relax... (What do cakes do to relax?)

Find something on which you can turn it out. In our case that meant putting some foil over the bread board.

Loosen the cake all around the edges gently then put the board on top and turn.

Decorate the cake with candles.

If eating it hot its good with custard and is more like a pudding.

And you really shouldn't look at the estimate of the kcalories per serving...

Of course having read the New Scientist this week you'll know that to lose weight you need to sleep more. (Okay that's a gross over-generalisation)

Then blog it and struggle for a while with blogger to publish it... and get into trouble with IF's Penelope as she thought it was just a photo... but now I've added in the Camel Exchange picture so I should be back within the rules of Illustration Friday except for being in the wrong categories and showing the wrong thumbnail of course...

28 comments:

Caroline said...

Which IF categories do you think I should put Camel Exchange IFs in?

Gabrielle said...

Camel exchange sounds like a great idea, I like any type of collaborative project, a layer cake is a perfect subject.

And your birthday cake is making me drool, I like Painter too.

andrea said...

I want to eat pineapple upside down cake (I've never had it before) and add to your Camel Exchange illustration but I haven't got the time today! (Stupid saturdays) I enjoyed the pictures, though.

valerie walsh said...

is this like singing for your supper? You work hard to make this cake, but it is well worth it I can tell! Like this layer cake that you are baking over at the Camel Exchange. We both made house cakes!!!

Wandering Coyote said...

For once a recipe from the UK that doesn't involve self-raising flour! That's a first for me!

Did you not grease/flour the tin first?

Caroline said...

Gabrielle - do join in there are various other projects on the go over there.

Andrea - the cake is disappearing faster than it ought given its fat content... I expect the picture will still be around to be played with for some time to come...

Valgalart - I noticed that the Camel Exchange cake was one that was reminiscent of one of yours - fun!

Wandering Coyote - the creamed sugar and butter mixture is the only greasing we gave the pan - it was a non-stick pan - I was a bit worried about it sticking but it was absolutely fine - came out really well.
I usually convert recipes that call for self-raising flour but this one did start that way. Self-raising flour seems daft to me - I don't use it often enough and then it gets damp and loses its oomp!

Tony LaRocca said...

Forget photos, It should be in it's own catagory as evil freaky looking cake! Yummy!

Anonymous said...

This layered cake is an invitation for the eye and mouth.

Joy Eliz said...

Yummy!!! Reminds me of a Pineapple Upside down cake...DELISH!!!!

Your art dolls are so whimsical and beautiful...makes me want to give it a try. As if I don't already have enough on my plate...and I'm not talking cake.
(too bad!)

Happy B-day to J....

Caroline said...

Tony - thanks - is it that lava look that makes it evil? Or just the sheer number of calories?

Paula - thanks - its also an invitation to play along too!

Joy Eliz - art dolls are strange beasts - some people become entirely obsessed with making them - I think of them as a soft form of sculpture with a lot of spirit in them!

And thanks for the happy bd wishes - he appreciates them.

Anonymous said...

a very vibrant and happy illo!
thanx for your comment...off course my neptune was there...he is an old character of mine (plus my only GOD)
:)

Janet said...

Pineapple upside down cake..YUM...but I have never made it with the almonds...sounds delicious!

susanlavonne said...

wow...this is almost eerie! i swear that i did not see that you had posted a recipe until just now! and an artsie fabulous one at that :-)

and,yes, i will add the eggs to the list of ingredients...thank you SO much for commenting....

and BTW...pineapple upside down is my FAVORITE...merci beaucoup!

Anonymous said...

This pineapple upside down cake looks yummy. I haven't made one in years. Also love the camel exchange cake. How whimsical!

Caroline said...

Aynaku - thank you - your Neptune picture is one of my favourites now I know why!

Janet - The almonds were great and so were the pecans.

Susanlavonne - odd isn't it! Not like I've been posting recipes much... in fact I think I've only mentioned one other bake on here and didn't give the recipe...

Nan - it still is - there was a lot of it! And yes it started out whimsical... thanks to Johnny Norms! Glad it still is.

The Unknown said...

Yummy! That will beat biscuits any day!
love

Anonymous said...

What a yummy cake...very inspirational..kinda get in the kitchen and do it now stuff!!
Love your dolls too, they are fabulous.
xox
Marie

Catalina said...

Wao! I jut found your blog! I will read it more carefully, but since now, I love it......

Anonymous said...

I love the Camel Exchange cake - so whimsical and fun! Though the pineapple upside-down cake looks tastier : ) In fact, now I'm craving it - Hmmm, I feel an urge to bake coming on...

Reluctant Nomad said...

Beautiful cake! And SO retro!!

Happy birthday, belated I know, to Jim.

Anonymous said...

I love what you and the "others" come up with your exchanges. This is no exception.
a.

Todd DeWolf said...

Great post. I love upside down pineapple cake. It goes great with a cup of tea. :)

Jaimie said...

delicious! both illustrations and I want to try your recipe. thanks for sharing

TXArtcGal said...

Awesome job on the illo...and, what a great idea (the camel exchange). We play a "game" here where somebody draws something, and we keep adding to it. However...it is usually done on napkins at a restaurant while we're waiting for our food. Again...great job!

tiffini elektra x said...

Oh my gosh what a cool idea! I love that people are adding layers! What a fabulous cake so far love all the windows and the pacing bird!

tiffini elektra x said...

P.S. That cake recipe sounds fantastic! My mouth is watering - going to have to try that one soon. . .

harmonyinline said...

Yummy post

Anonymous said...

I love that house cake. I can just imagine the little people living in it. And that cake looks delicious. I've unfortunately inherited my mother's inability to cook anything that isn't frozen and microwaveable.