Sunday, September 19, 2010

Birthday Quake

One of our grown up girls has just had a birthday so today I decided to make her a special cake for tonight's family dinner. The Edmond's recipe - Macaroon Cake - is like an enlarged, slightly more complicated version of a Louise Cake. However as I said last week - things don't always turn out the way we plan.

When it was nearing the end of it's cooking time the topping began to look over-done. So I whipped it out of the oven trying not to burn my fingers on the hot, sticky, dripping jam, most of which had by now landed in the bottom of my oven! AND there was a crack down the middle of the topping akin to a Canterbury Earthquake fault-line. On closer inspection I also discovered that the underneath cake bit had a 'pool' of un-cooked mixture in the centre... so with topping removed and waiting in the wings I returned base cake to oven for more cooking. I then re-constructed the whole affair on a fancy plate and I sincerely hope it tastes better than it looks!

Anyways, at least it is made with Jodi's lovely free-range eggs, Darling Man's homemade/home-grown Strawberry Guava jam and I poured lots of love into it too. I hope these special ingredients suffice to rescue our Darling Girl's 'birthday quake'.

Macaroon Cake

100 gm butter
1/2 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup strawberry jam

Topping -
3 eggs whites
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups coconut
1 tsp almond essence

Melt butter in saucepan large enough to mix all the ingredients. Stir in sugar and egg yolks. Sift flour and baking powder into the saucepan. Add milk and vanilla and mix with a wooden spoon to combine. Spread mixture into a 20cm ring tin lined on the base with baking paper. A spring-form pan or loose-bottom cake tin is best. Spread jam over batter. Spread topping over. Bake at 180 deg C for 45 - 50 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool in tin for 10 minutes before quickly inverting onto a wire rack covered with a clean tea-towel, then turning onto another rack so topping does not get broken.

Topping -
Beat egg whites until stiff. Gradually beat in sugar and continue beating until mixture is thick. Mix in coconut and almond essence.

8 comments:

  1. I'd say ..well done. From where I'm looking, it looks very scrumptious. Great save. ..and happy birthday to your daughter.. from an unknown third cousin!

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  2. Oh your cake looks wonderful, no sign of any dramas at all. Do hope your daughter had a lovely
    birthday.

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  3. Guess what? The cake tasted FANTASTIC - even if I may say so myself. It was moist (and cooked as opposed to raw)the family really enjoyed it - only crumbs remain to be seen.... any left-overs have been taken off in containers for tomorrow's lunch-boxes.

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  4. Gorgeous cake mum! And thanks for the birthday wishes :)

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  5. Looks good to me...Happy Birthday Annah.

    Michele

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  6. I agree, it was delicious! And Dean enjoyed having it for lunch today xo Erica

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  7. As you have said things don't turn out as we plan, we have been going through a huge family change over the last 15 months, family being just the 3 of us myself, my wonderful loving stable husband and our lovely son. This has shown us that even tho this is not what we planned for we can get through it with love and support from each other and our precious family and friends, our lives have changed and this has shown us how strong our little family unit of 3 is. you never know what is around the corner or when life with throw that really curly one you never planned on! Del

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