Strike Two – Almond Lemon Tea Cake
Brought them in for the office this morning.
With extra time on my hands this evening, almond paste in the pantry, and lots of citrus sitting around, I decided to try this recipe again.
Cake golden brown? Check.
Cake springs back up with a light touch? Check.
Toothpick comes out clean in several locations? Check.
And yet, the cake started to collapse again in the middle after the glaze is added. The instructions say to brush the glaze on while the cake is still warm so that the sugar crystallizes. Could it be that I'm glazing too early, turning a delicate crumb into mush?
So I made due with what I had, carving out the good parts into little treats for the office. It nonetheless tastes lovely and will go great with coffee or tea.
Second try at the Almond Lemon Tea Cake
Taste: Decadent
Ease of recipe: Deceivingly difficult (obviously subjective)
Time: 2 Hours
Total calories* per recipe: 4487 (10 servings) <--highlight this area with your cursor to see the calories
* Calories based on recipe calculator from MyFitnessPal.com
Not My Finest Moment – Almond Lemon Tea Cake
Almond Lemon Tea Cake - a sunken, sugary mess.
The recipe seemed easy enough, but obviously, something just wasn't quite right. The cake was undercooked, especially in the middle. This was not clear to me until I turned it over onto my wire rack and poured the orange-lemon syrup on top. At this point, the middle of the cake started to sink and the syrup collected, creating a lovely pool. I also had issues with the almond paste. I have never worked with it before and was unclear at the time as to whether I had broken it down enough during the mixing process. Thoughts, opinions? I'll be trying this recipe out again in a few weeks and would love any suggestions.
While I'm sure that my process for baking this recipe could be refined, I'm beginning to think that my oven temperature isn't calibrated correctly (I've run into this issue before, making the Chocolate Friands). I'm going to look into this a bit more, but I did find this article from Chef Talk on how to test for this:
Checking the Temperature
Steps:
1. Put an oven thermometer at the center of the oven and set the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Check the temperature indicated on the thermometer after 20 minutes. If it's not within 5 degrees of 350, you'll need to adjust the oven's temperature control.
Tips: You can get an oven thermometer with a mercury column at kitchen specialty shops.
Adjusting the Setting
Steps:
3. Turn the oven off.
4. Pull off the temperature control knob. You can usually pry it off with a thin screwdriver or slide a piece of fabric up behind it and pull.
5. Note which kind of temperature control knob you have. There are two types: The first has a screw in the shaft of the knob; the second has an adjustment dial on the back of the knob.
6. Adjust the temperature with the first type by turning the screw in the shaft with a screwdriver. Turn it clockwise to lower the temperature; turn it counterclockwise to raise the temperature. Turn the screw just a little bit in the appropriate direction.
7. Adjust the temperature with the second type of knob by turning the dial on the back of the knob. (This dial is held in place with a screw or a clip that will need to be removed.) Raise the temperature setting by turning the dial counterclockwise; lower it by turning the dial clockwise. The notches are typically in 10-degree increments.
8. Test the oven temperature again.
9. Repeat until you're in the right temperature range.