What Are You Baking? April 2024

[MunchkinRedux]

Again with the chocolate rye cake fromSarah Kieffer’s 100 Morning Treats. I’m posting this cake for the second time in a short while, as I have a question for more experienced bakers.

This is my third bake of this recipe (love the cake). The first came out fine, and today’s came out fine. The bake in between, however, sank.

The only difference I’m aware of is that for that failed, second bake, I swapped a little over half the Valrhona Dutch processed cocoa powder for KAF’s black cocoa powder, with no adjustments to the baking powder or the baking soda. Could that have resulted in the cake sinking?

Or is it more likely I mis-weighed or measured an ingredient somewhere?

My only other thought is my batter might have been too hot? This is one of those cakes where you melt the butter on the stove in a pot, and then start adding in all the rest of the ingredients to the warm pot. Most of the additions are made off heat, but still… Today I made sure to keep things at the lowest possible temp, yet still blend-able.

That sunken cake tasted fine, and the crumb was fine, but it had a large crevice - way beyond the ordinary crack down the middle of the top.

Any thoughts? Photos are of today’s, successful bake.

Here’s the ingredient list for a half-recipe in an 8" x 4" pan:

67 g. milk chocolate, melted and cooled
106 g. AP flour
33 g. medium rye flour
25 g. Dutch process cocoa, sifted
3/8 t. baking soda
1/8 t. baking powder
4 T. unsalted butter
150 g. brown sugar
50 g. granulated sugar
3/8 t. granulated salt
120 g. buttermilk, room temp
1 large egg, room temp
1 large egg yolk, room temp
1/2 t. vanilla extract

[Nannybakes]

Beautiful cake MunchKin! Any possibility that you inadvertently used too much leavener? Maybe put in in twice? Sinking “ usually” is a bp/bs problem but I’m really guessing!
I can see why you have made it thrice, looks so delicious! Hopefully, it was an outlier and might remain a mystery!

[MunchkinRedux]

Thank you for the feedback! Too much baking soda was my first thought. Whatever the issue was, it seems to have been resolved. Happily so, because we really love this one…

[Nannybakes]

I can see why…looks gorgeous! Might have to make it Lovely crumb on it.
Black cocoa usually has a lower fat content but that probably didn’t create the problem…did you use it this time?

[MunchkinRedux]

I did not use it this time, but am going to try swapping some of it out it again, with a careful eye on scaling and batter-temp. I’ll report a follow-up when I do. If you make the cake, please let us know how it goes!

[Nannybakes]

BG, not sure where I got these from as I rebagged and keep in the freezer doubled bag zip-loc.
But…these are raw, I never buy toasted pistachios and that is likely why they are bright green.

[pavlova (Mary)]

Have you tried Shiraz market on Somerset?

[Madrid]

And so beautiful!

[ChristinaM (Hungry in Asheville, NC)]

Thanks! The family loved it!

[LulusMom1 (Kari)]

It’s the one Saregama linked to above, right? Thanks so much. I love citrus cakes but have never been a huge marmalade fan, so this might be perfect.

[Nannybakes]

Yes, it’s my favorite quickie cake. The lemon jam has less sugar than marmalade so you might take that into account.
It’s also a small cake which is a plus for me!

[Nannybakes]

A slice of the pistachio clementine bundt with a dollop of sour cream, pistachios, and clementine jam. Shout out to @Stef_bakes for the inspiration to make clementine jam…delicious!

[CaitlinM]

@LulusMom1 you might also like this cake to use up some marmalade. I’m not really a fan of marmalade on its own, either, and it just disappears into the cake. I included it along with zest and juice for a deeper orange flavor, and it works in that regard. (I’ve only used orange marmalade, but no reason other flavors wouldn’t work well. A friend tried it with yuzu and was very pleased.) The first photo is of a half-sized cake in a 6-inch pan. The slice is from one I made with almond meal rather than almond flour; it was still a soft and moist cake, but the crumb wasn’t as fine.

Orange Marmalade Almond Cake

1 1/2 cups (175g) AP flour
3/4 cup (70g) almond flour or almond meal
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2/3 cup (135g) granulated sugar
1 T. finely grated orange orange zest
1 stick (115g) unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1/3 cup (120g) orange marmalade
1/2 tsp. almond extract
7 T. (95ml) fresh-squeezed orange juice

Glaze:

1 cup (113g) confectioner’s sugar, sifted
2 T. orange juice
1/2 tsp. blossom water (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9-inch springform pan or 9x2-inch round cake pan and line with parchment. Whisk together the flour, almond flour or meal, baking powder and soda, and salt and set aside. In mixer bowl, rub together sugar and zest until fragrant using fingers or paddle on low speed. Add butter and cream until fluffy, then beat the eggs in one at a time, followed by the marmalade, zest, and almond extract. Beat in the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the orange juice in two additions. Pour the batter in the pan, smooth the top, and bake 25-30 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. Cool on a rack 10 minutes, then turn out of the pan and cool completely. Whisk glaze ingredients together and spread over cake.

[GretchenS]

@Shellybean has been missing from this thread for a long time. Anyone have any news of her?

[LulusMom1 (Kari)]

Thank you Caitlin - it looks and sounds delicious and perfect for me. I never keep orange juice in the house and hate to buy it just for a cake. Any suggestions for a substitution?

[CaitlinM]

I think it’s worth it to buy a large orange so you can can zest it and then use it f for the juice, because the zest really adds a lot of flavor, as does the juice. That’s what I do. (I don’t really drink juice, so never have it in the house, either.)

[LulusMom1 (Kari)]

I suppose that is the best way to deal with it. We always have mandarins around, which was how I thought I would make it, but they’re not going to give me juice, I don’t think.

[Saregama]

I blended a squishy orange and strained it out last time.

Most of the flavor imo is from the zest.

If you’re worried about the acid quotient, I’ve sometimes used a tsp or so of cider or rice vinegar to supplement.

[LulusMom1 (Kari)]

Agree about the zest.

[CaitlinM]

Mandarins can work, I think. I find they can actually be pretty juicy sometimes (the ones I’ve been eating are), you just have to use enough of them to get the amount you need, since they’re smaller and might not have a similar yield.