Foolproof Jelly Roll Cake

Ages ago I read an article about Red Ribbon Bakery on Serious Eats and I finally made it there this weekend.  Red Ribbon is Filipino bakery chain that opened it’s first location in New York last winter.  I was intrigued by the description of the cakes as “soft and moist”.  I’m a sucker for light and airy cakes like angel food, chiffon, and sponge.  The cakes I got from the bakery didn’t disappoint: the mango roll was moist and only subtly sweet and the coffee walnut bavarian was the rare layer cake that you can eat an entire slice of without feeling disgustingly full afterward.  As I was eating these cakes I realized that I should make more of this style of cake that I actually enjoy eating at home.

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Apple Butter Cake with Apple Butter Frosting

I’ve  been in an experimental mood this week.  On two occasions I’ve baked things using without using a recipe.  On Sunday night I was craving something sweet.  I had a lot of peaches that were about to go bad so I figured I’d whip up a peach crisp.  I wanted a crunchy topping with a slightly spiced filling.  Well the topping was dry and the peach filling had so much cinnamon and ginger that it was only edible with a lot of vanilla ice cream mixed in.  I ate one serving, but threw out the rest.

Then I decided I wanted to make a sunflower seed butter cookie based on a confection I had in Portland.  Unfortunately no stores in my neighborhood had sunflower seed butter.  So I bought a container of apple butter instead.  I based this cake off from the lots-of-ways banana cake in Baking: From My Home to Yours.  And it came out really good – if you like apples.  The apple butter gives the cakes a very concentrated apple flavor.

I'm a huge fan of Baker's Joy. These cakes came out of the pan with no issues.

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Lemon Baby Bundts

This was supposed to be a post about how valuable it is to have some standard recipes that you can make in a variety of ways.  In this case the recipe is Ina Garten’s Lemon Cake.  I have made this recipe as two loaves, as a three layer birthday cake, and as cupcakes for a friends wedding.  On Sunday I decided to make this recipe in my brand new baby bundt pan.  And you know what?  It didn’t come out that great.  And as soon as I tasted the cakes and realized they had a sort of chewy texture and I remembered this had actually happened before when I made this recipe as cupcakes.

I’m still not entirely sure what the problem is.  It  could be that this cake doesn’t work well in miniature form.   Or that I happen to like cake on the dryer side and this one is possibly TOO moist when you brush it with the simple syrup.  Or maybe it’s that I keep thinking it’s a pound cake recipe and am reminded when I go to make it that it’s not pound cake, and isn’t advertised as such.

The cake recipe in two previous incarnations.

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