Speaking of Mother's Day today, Mr Gatsby's mum is no ordinary mum (although who is really?). She's a cookbook author having published a cookbook on German cakes and pastries called the German Pastry bakebook. I wrote the book because in the 1970s pastries in the U.S. were not to my German standard. Because of that I had to do my own baking. This got me more and more interested and when going to Germany I quizzed every family member I could find for theirtraditional recipes. The challenge was that I needed to transfer them to American ingredients plus figure out the correct measurements as these recipes were very loose and not at all perfectly measured out, sometimes they were just known and passed down orally! So I had to try each recipe many times until getting the right combination so one could get the real German taste and flavour, and slowly but surely I wrote the German Pastry Bakebook."
She adds "The sunken cherry cake is my older sister's recipe as we always had plenty of sour cherries in our garden. I remember she explained to me that "our" sour cherries were too small to pit. If she did that, nothing would be left! This was the excuse to leave the stones in!!!! Of course one can buy now lovely sour cherries, and pitted ones too."
When her sister made this cake she did not remove the cherry pits (always a laborious task) and as a result the cake was known by the name _Spuckkuchen _or Spit Cake to signify the spitting of the cherry pits. She also suggests that you could use tart plums or any other tart fruit as the sweet cake batter helps to balance it and I agree.
I didn't use all of the cherries as I wasn't sure how far down I should push them although the next time that I make this I would use more and keep pushing them down as they would be a juicy surprise throughout the slice. Although the cinnamon sugar adds a lovely aroma, as Margit suggest you could omit it and instead pour a cherry glaze over it or leave it and sprinkle icing sugar over it and it would look like a gorgeously golden yet rubied cake. As it is, it was soft, sweet and buttery withthe perfect counterpoint of sour from the sour cherries and a dollop of whipped cream was a sumptuous but somehow wholly necessary accompaniment. Happy Mother's Day to all the mums out there!
Preheat oven to 375?F/190C.
Butter and flour or line a 10-inch springform pan.
Step 1 - Cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time until combined.
Step 2 - Add vanilla or rum.
Step 3 - Fold in flour and baking powder.
Step 4 - Pour the batter immediately into the prepared pan and smooth it with a spatula. It will be quite a thick batter.
Step 5 - Distribute the cherries over the batter, pressing each down slightly to anchor it. You may find you have more cherries than can be pushed in on a single layer so just keep pushing more down.
Step 6 - Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly over all.
Step 7 - Place at once in the lower middle of a preheated 375?F/190C oven and bake for 60 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Step 8 - Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before unmolding it onto a cake rack to cool thoroughly. When cool, using a sieve, sift icing sugar over the top and serve.
Variations. Omit the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Prepare 1½ cups of cherry or plum glaze. Pour the glaze over the cake and let it cool. Or sprinkle the cake generously with confectioners sugar after it has cooled.
Serving suggestion. Serve each piece with a spoonful of whipped cream.
The best way to avoid sinking fruit is to toss the fruit in a couple of tablespoons of the flour (just use some from the measured amount for the recipe) to coat it lightly. Once added to the cake mixture the flour coating will thicken the batter immediately surrounding the fruit and help suspend the fruit.
If your cake was cooked to the proper temperature, chances are it is still edible even if it sunk in the center. Check that it's baked through the middle, then try a small piece of your cake. It might not taste good if the ingredient measurements were off. Notice the texture to make sure it's not too dense or spongy.
Sour cream is one of the fattiest dairy products; the extra fat content (for example, adding sour cream to a cake instead of milk) will make the cake moister and richer, says Wilk. "Fat, in any form (butter, lard, cream, etc.) shortens gluten strands, which essentially leads to the most tender baked goods," she adds.
When it comes to baking, balancing your ingredients is key. If you have too much liquid or too much fat in your cake batter, this can result in a cake with a weak structure which can cause it to sink in the middle.
If your batter is thin, says Wise, any added fruit needs support to help it stay suspended. Otherwise, it will all sink to the bottom. With any recipe, she first considers the thickness of her cake batter and how heavy, or wet, the added fruit will be.
What Causes A Cake To Sink In The Middle? Using too-small tins, not mixing your wet batter right, or being too rough with the oven door often leads to a huge baking flop.
Most cakes bake at 350°F. Reducing the temperature to 325°F is all you need to do to get a flat-topped cake. I usually take a quick peek once I've reached the original baking time and then every 5 minutes after that just to be sure I don't over bake it, but the adjustment above is usually pretty accurate.
Can't milk or buttermilk do the same? Here's one thing to consider: thickness. Sour cream adds moisture without thinning your batter the same way that a liquid would. That fact that sour cream delivers moisture without further thinning out a batter results in a cake with a very tender, very fine crumb.
You can also experiment with a combination of whole milk and yogurt or sour cream, which will add a bit of body to your baked goods. While buttermilk is actually lower in fat than whole milk, its thicker consistency makes it a good substitute for heavy cream in your baked goods.
Lemon juice naturally contains citric acid which quickly reacts with the base present in the baking powder producing CO2 and sodium citrate. This may lead to undesirable flavors and poor crust color due to lower pH of the product after baking.
There's a big chance your butter and sugar will over-cream, meaning the butter will trap more air than it should. As the batter bakes, that extra air will deflate and leave you with an overly dense cake. It's all science! For best results, cream butter and sugar together for about 1-2 minutes.
To assemble cakes: Place one layer on a serving plate or cake stand. Top with buttercream. Spread jam on the middle layer and invert it, placing the jam side on top of the bottom layer.
To prevent the cherries from sinking to the bottom of the cake, rinse with warm water to remove any sticky syrup. Then slice them in half and pat dry with kitchen roll before mixing with a tablespoon of the flour and set aside. 2. Now cream the sugar and butter together in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
Introduction: My name is Barbera Armstrong, I am a lovely, delightful, cooperative, funny, enchanting, vivacious, tender person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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